


Windup

by birlcholtz (justwhatialwayswanted)



Category: Sharp Zero (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M, Slow Burn, alex's service dog isn't in this bc i lowkey forgot, also lil ashtray has a questionable relationship with existing in this realm, except never mind jet may be making an appearance, in the words of hozier, or at least I'm trying, secret identity shenanigans, so GONNA BE AU AS HELL, that's the problem with writing fic when the comic is in early stages, they're all disasters every single one of them, this is gonna be so au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2018-12-06 14:09:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 35,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11602245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justwhatialwayswanted/pseuds/birlcholtz
Summary: Ace is pretty sure there isn't supposed to be a Vindicator in his apartment, but what does he know?In which Redshift and Crank know each other perhaps better than they think they do, and Caesar causes all sorts of problems.(updates every 2 weeks)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> this is just the prologue so it's short af!!! but i wanted to get it up there :) idk how fast updates will be since i still have more planning to do, so they'll probably be slow until i can start devoting all my writing time to actually turning outlining into words. i intend this to be a slow burn btw (which probably everyone who's on the discord/follows me on tumblr knows already lmao)  
> and the tags and summary and whatnot are v simple rn but i'm gonna add to them as the story becomes More  
> hERE WE GO!!!!

When the person in the blue mask takes out something that looks almost like a taser, Redshift is not surprised. Of the five people he fought with last, four have had the exact same weapons, and the taser thing is one of the more annoying ones. He can defend himself perfectly well after it temporarily takes away his ability to balance, but they always take the opportunity to escape.

So he shifts behind the person— a few inches off from where he meant to be, but close enough for his purposes— and reaches to take it, but the person jabs the taser thing straight into his hand instead.

Ugh.

Redshift was already leaning forward, but now he topples onto the ground, and the person in the blue mask snickers before darting away. There’s not much he can do now but wait for it to subside, which should take about twenty minutes.

He rolls over so he’s not lying on his face and settles in to wait.

The only good thing about the people with blue masks is that they seem more interested in saving themselves than in doing whatever they were planning to do. Redshift continually finds them hanging around in the same spot for hours, and they pick fights with anyone who seems too curious. Still, he’ll take that over actively committing crimes, even if that’s precisely what they’re equipped to do.

“Call Mission Control,” he says to his communicator. A couple seconds later, Madina picks up.

“Problem? Stardust’s nearby if you need a hand.”

“No,” Redshift says. “Just another one of those people with blue masks.” There’s a  _ ping _ that indicates that Madina just requested his location, so he sends it to her.

“Okay. That makes eighteen that we’ve encountered, but I’m pretty sure we’re finding the same ones over and over.” 

_ Or at least, we hope so, _ Redshift fills in. “I’m done with patrol for tonight, so I’m gonna head home.”

“Come in ASAP if there’s any injuries,” she says, and then she hangs up.

Redshift can feel the world getting less off-kilter, and he slowly sits up, then he crouches, then he stands, and then he shifts back to his apartment, because he is  _ unbelievably _ ready to sleep.

Except when he shifts, he lands on one foot, and his balance must not be back all the way because he takes a few steps forward and the world tilts and he has just tripped and faceplanted onto a couch that he’s  _ sure  _ was not in his apartment when he left.

“What the fuck?” Redshift murmurs into the couch cushion, and then he hears a door open.


	2. Chapter 1: Ace

Ace may have superpowers, but he also has common sense, to a point. So when he hears the floorboards creaking in his living room, he’s suspicious, for a lot of reasons.

One: He lives alone.

Two: It can’t be any of his friends because Elliot is out with Danny, Madina doesn’t have a key (she claims she never wants to set foot in his apartment because she’s sure there is not a grosser thing on the planet), and Kate is doing a spa weekend with her mom. 

Three: His landlord is never around.

All of these possible explanations are doubly disproved when he hears a voice say “Ow,  _ fuck.” _

A very recognizable voice.

Ace closes the front door and weighs his options. He can get to his room as quietly as possible, put his guitar down, change into Crank, and charge into the living room. Which would cause a ton of property damage, raise questions about how Crank got into Ace’s apartment, and probably result in injuries on both sides. Or he can just walk in as Ace, hope Redshift doesn’t realize that Crank is the same person, and be a confused civilian, which is probably a lot less suspicious and potentially painful.

Really, it’s not a hard choice, so Ace kicks his shoes off and heads into the living room, pretending to be surprised when he walks in and sees Redshift sprawled out, half on the three-million-year-old couch that Kate had insisted Ace get to make his apartment look more ‘homey’ and half on the floor. “Yo, what the fuck? Are you really Redshift?” (Of course it’s Redshift, Ace knows the exact sound of his voice in that  _ exact _ cadence and phrase from the number of times Ace has punched him. But of course, Ace doesn’t know that, Crank does.)

“Unfortunately,” Redshift says.

“What are you doing here then?”

“Good question. I was shifting home. Wound up here instead. Not sure how it happened. So, once I can get back up, I’m just gonna go. Where is this, by the way?”

“The second floor of the apartment building on Picket and Marlough?”

Redshift pulls his legs under him and then slowly, gruelingly, starts to stand up. He pauses and sits on the couch for a break. “Okay. I’ll be out of here in a minute.”

“Did you get in a fight?”

“Obviously.” Ah, yes. Redshift is never pissier than when he’s injured. “Just a couple bank robbers. One of them had tentacles, though.”

“Tentacles.”

“Yes. And one weapon per tentacle. Except for the crowbar. Which doubled as a weapon.”

“Fun.”

“Yeah.” Redshift tries to stand up again and manages it, although he favors his right leg. “Okay, I think I’m good to go. Sorry for the intrusion. Thanks for not, like, attacking the stranger in your apartment.”

“Uh, sure, no problem, dude.”

Redshift walks out of the apartment, careful but not limping, and Ace hears the door shut behind him.

“What the fuck?” he mutters to himself, and then he checks the couch and the floor for blood, although if Redshift’s been here for a while, any blood would have set already and it’s hopeless. Honestly, if there  _ is _ blood on the couch, it would probably be easier (and cheaper) to just buy a new one.

There isn’t, which is actually kind of a relief. The couch is old, but it still beats trying to get another one through the door into the apartment. That took two hours last time, and there are still chips in the paint on some of the walls.

Redshift didn’t seem to know where he was or who Ace was, which is a good sign, but Ace can’t take that at face value. If Redshift knows where Crank lives, there’s no guarantee that he won’t try to capture Crank as a civilian. (The Vindicators usually avoid killing people, which is only minutely reassuring.)

It  _ is _ late at night, though, and if Redshift is hurt, it would be really weird for him to knowingly go to the apartment of someone he routinely gets in fights with. Ace probably could have picked him off pretty easily, civilian persona or not. That points to it being a simple mistake, or just finding a couch to collapse on out of desperation.

It’s probably just a one-time thing.

 

“Redshift is injured,” Crank says. “I don’t know how serious it is, but he was favoring his right leg and had difficulty standing up. No visible blood.”

“How do you know that?” Dispatch asks from the corner of her mouth. They’re both staring straight forward.

“Oh my god, don’t even ask.”

“Okay... but if you’re hooking up with him on the DL, I have a lot of questions.”

“I’m not, don’t worry.”

 

A week or so passes, long enough that if Ace hadn’t noticed a distinct lack of Redshift appearing in public or getting in fights, he would think he’d hallucinated the injured-super-visit.

One night, while Crank and Dispatch are patrolling, he thinks for a second he’s spotted a familiar red blur a few blocks down the street, but then he blinks and it’s gone.

“Did you see that?” he asks.

“That red thing? I think it was a glare from the traffic light. There’s a ton of windows over there.”

“Yeah, that’s probably what it is.”

They finish up patrol ten minutes later, and Ace goes into an alley and takes off his gloves and his mask and pulls on a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants over the rest of his outfit. (He can fit the gloves and mask in the pocket of his hoodie— it looks a little lumpy, but if he sticks his hands in there too, nobody will notice.) His hair will fade back to green the longer he’s not preparing energy flames, but honestly, he doesn’t want to stay in the alley long enough for that to finish changing, so he starts the walk home with white hair. It’ll be green in a couple minutes, more than long enough for him to get back to his apartment.

The longer Redshift stays at home, or whatever he’s doing, the less Crank and Dispatch have to do. So far, the only thing they’ve had to do is mess with Redshift— pop up while he’s trying to focus on something else, leave graffiti obviously meant for him all over the city, and just generally act like leeches. Their employer keeps hinting at their job being part of a larger plan, but combing the city for Redshift night after night is getting stale.

When he gets back, he’s about to collapse on the couch, but there’s a note written on a scrap of paper from the recycling bin.

_ Sorry about the scuff marks on the floor, I had to run up the side of the building and stopping was harder than I expected. Hopefully won’t happen again. See you around, probably. _

There are indeed scuff marks on the floor on the other side of the couch. They’re not as bad as they could be, but getting them out is not something Ace can do— at least, not without causing severe collateral damage to his floor.

Ugh.

 

“Hey, guess what?” Elliot says as he walks into their practice room exactly twenty seconds before they’re supposed to start rehearsal.

“What?” Kate says.

“Danny’s brother is going to come to our next gig!”

“Really?” Madina asks. “How did he get off work? And  _ why _ is he coming?”

“I don’t know, and because we’re friends?”

“I’m friends with him too, he’s never come to see me.”

“He’s probably coming to see both of us.”

“Fair.”

“How do  _ you _ know Danny’s brother?” Ace asks her.

“We work together, but he’s higher up and works overtime like his life depends on it. Someone probably just kicked him out of the building until he takes some vacation days.”

“That sounds like Alex,” Elliot says.

“So what’s he like?” Kate stands up and comes out from behind the drum kit, since the rest of them are just standing around anyway.

“Stubborn,” Madina says at the same time that Elliot says, “Ridiculously attractive.”

“‘Ridiculously attractive’?” Ace says, raising his eyebrows.

“It’s a completely objective statement. Talk to me about it again once you meet him.”

“Sure, Elliot.”

Elliot and Madina whisper to each other for all of rehearsal with drawn foreheads and tense facial expressions, but other than that, it’s productive. The next gig is tomorrow, back at the Royal Flush, and they’re definitely prepared. Tonight can be a lazy night.

 

“I’m beginning to think this is intentional,” Ace says.

“Fuck you,” Redshift replies from where he’s collapsed on Ace’s couch.

“That’s moving pretty damn fast. You haven’t even taken me out to dinner.”

“What makes you think I want to?”

“Face it, the first time you shifted into my apartment was an accident, the second time was a coincidence, the third time was intentional. What else could a vigilante want with little old me? That’s how all the cheapass romance novels go.” 

Ace flops down on the couch, and Redshift sits up with a groan. “Right now all I want to do is raid your alcohol and go home.”

“Let me know if you find any,” Ace says, reaching around Redshift to grab the pillow that’s nestled against the other armrest of the couch. He makes himself comfortable on the couch. “It’s in the kitchen if I haven’t drunk it all.”

“Thanks.” Redshift gets up off the coach and makes his way to the kitchen.

“You just want me for my fluctuating alcohol supply,” Ace says as he stretches out to occupy the space Redshift has just vacated.

“I won’t deny it’s helpful,” Redshift calls from the kitchen. “Also, all you have is a full spice rack and six boxes of mint chocolate chip cookies.”

“A kitchen is a place for food, not nutrition.”

“You don’t even have, like, chips.”

“If you’re so desperate for salt you can just talk to me.”

Redshift reappears with all six boxes of cookies. “I’m not that desperate.”

“It would be very rude to take all of my cookies and leave. At least eat them here so I can have some.”

“If you make room on the couch I will.”

Ace sits up and locates the TV remote. “Deal.” He half expects Redshift to turn and leave anyway, but he sits himself down on the couch and opens two of the boxes, handing one of them to Ace and keeping the other one for himself. “What should we watch?”

“Honestly, I don’t care. I’m just here to eat your cookies and vanish.”

“Rude,” Ace says lazily as he turns the TV on. He’s going to have his low-key night, even if Redshift seems determined to make that impossible. “If I wasn’t such an understanding person I might kick you out.”

“I don’t know why you’ve let me stay this long, actually.”

“Same.”

“At least we’re on the same page. Also, I’m sorry about the constant breaking and entering.”

“Could be worse, you could actually be stealing things.”

“This doesn’t count?” Redshift asks as he puts an entire cookie in his mouth.

“No, I’m eating them too.”

“Good to know. Your hospitality is enviable.”

“You wouldn’t give someone cookies?”

“I usually don’t buy enough food to last more than a day or two. I have to go to six different grocery stores so people don’t ask weird questions like ‘why do you buy a cartful of groceries every day.’”

“I guess the shifting takes a lot of energy.”

“Definitely.”

“Do me a favor and put the cookies on the end table so they won’t spill and get crumbs between the couch cushions. What do you want to watch?”

“I’m in the mood for E! News.”

“Hm, celebrity gossip and no plot arcs to follow. I like it.”

Redshift crams another cookie into his mouth, but he finishes it before saying, “I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“Ha, yes, it is.” Ace grabs a cookie to prevent himself saying anything stupid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woohoo, next chapter! once again, i'm not sure how fast updates are going to be, but expect them to be around this length. :)  
> -birl


	3. Chapter 2: Alex

Madina’s brow furrows. “If your navigation is off, that points to a more serious problem. You should probably be taking time off.”

“I can’t just take time off when we have potential organized criminals going around looking for trouble. You need all hands on deck.”

“No we don’t. We will, but we don’t  _ now, _ and you’re injured now. Take some time, see if you can figure out what’s wrong, fix it as best as you can before we actually do need to use every Vindicator we’ve got. I’d rather you didn’t get killed or incapacitated because you wouldn’t stop patrolling. Samira and Kim will take care of your area.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Good question. Ask Eli, I’m sure he’ll have a job for you, and in the meantime you can keep coming to our gigs. Be a groupie.”

“I’m not going to be a  _ groupie.” _

“Why not? You’ll be in good company.”

“Who’ll be in good company?” Kim says as they enter the gym. 

“Alex. I’m telling him that he should be a groupie for my band.”

“Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing he would do, but what do I know?”

“I’m fighting a losing battle,” Madina sighs. “At least wait until after you see us tonight to make any final decisions. And in the meantime, go home. Sleep while the rest of us can’t. Make me jealous with how lazy you’re being. That had better be enough incentive. Also, if we think you’re going to try and come back today, we won’t let you in.”

“That’s harsh.”

“Caringly harsh,” Kim says.

Madina makes a shooing motion with her hands. “Get going, I have to go tell Eli you’re out of commission for a few days and if you’re still here then he’ll just be mad at both of us. Do it for me, not for you, since it’s not like him being mad at you is out of the ordinary.”

“Your selflessness is inspiring.”

“I know, right? I’ll let you know when we can get some tests done to figure out what’s wrong. Until then, take a break from supering. And probably after that, continue to take a break from supering.”

“I will.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, have fun. Bye.” And with that, Madina takes out her phone and leaves the gym.

“Wow, you might be the first Vindicator who’s ever been  _ forced _ to go on sick leave,” Kim says from where they’re standing between the treadmill and the rowing machine. “Even Tanis takes breaks, and if she screws up, it’ll fuck over the entire planet.”

“I don’t think it counts as sick leave, I don’t really get sick.”

Kim gets on the rowing machine. “Yeah, and you’re not right now, but navigate badly enough when you shift and you’ll be puking your guts out, so I think that counts.”

“That’s a valid point. I should probably get going then. I have a day of nothing to get started on.”

They nod sagely. “My favorite kind. Make sure you get a nap in, that’s like the epitome of nothing. Not even consciousness.”

Alex laughs as he leaves the gym.

 

The weirdest thing about going home now happens when Alex has just gotten off the elevator (he usually takes the stairs, but if he’s on sick leave he may as well milk it) on his floor and he spots his neighbor, who has a guitar case on his back and is locking the door to his own apartment.

Somehow, he’s managed to accidentally shift into his neighbor’s living room instead of his own multiple times, encountered said neighbor almost every time, even had prolonged conversations with him, and he still doesn’t know the guy’s name. Introductions had never come up, probably because he already knew who Redshift was.

Alex should probably figure his name out at some point.

While he’s mulling this over, the guy passes him, and then he hears his voice from behind him.

“Hey, dude, are you lost or something?”

Right. He’s been standing in the middle of the hallway thinking about how he should really get his neighbor’s name, and remember to do it  _ twice, _ because Redshift and Alex both need to know the guy’s name, and time has probably elapsed while he’s been thinking about it.

“Oh, no,” Alex says, turning around to face him. Neighbor Guy has one eyebrow raised, and all Alex can think is that he must make that face a lot because when he’s been in Neighbor Guy’s apartment as Redshift, the expression seems to slide onto his face as easily as putting on a sock. It’s just as familiar now. “This is my floor, I’m just really out of it. Haven’t slept in a while. Thanks.”

“Uh, no problem. Get some sleep.” Neighbor Guy goes back to waiting for the elevator.

Well, that was only mildly embarrassing. And it’s even partially true.

Alex unlocks his apartment and goes in before he stands smack in the middle of the hallway for another few minutes and Neighbor Guy actually gets concerned.

The thing about telling Neighbor Guy that he hasn’t slept in a while is that now that Alex thinks about it, it’s actually true. He’s been taking nighttime patrols, and he spends a lot of the daytime at Mission Control training. It’s not so much that he pulls the occasional all-nighter as it is that he averages five hours of sleep.

Taking a nap is sounding better and better by the minute.

He texts Danny that he’s taking forced time off work for a while, sets an alarm on his phone for ten minutes before he needs to leave to meet up with Danny, Elliot, Madina, and Ace and Kate (who he hasn’t met yet), and then kicks his shoes off and faceplants onto his bed. Actually getting under the covers is probably pointless, because he always kicks them off anyway.

After a few seconds, he moves his face so he’s not pressing his nose directly into his pillow, then he falls asleep.

 

**Danny:** it’s nothing serious right?

**Danny:** ok madina says you’re not like. Dying or anything

**Danny:** madina also says she’s glad ur sleeping

**Danny:** see you tonight, kate’s excited to meet you

 

It’s the sun that wakes Alex up, rather than his alarm— once the sun gets below a certain point in the sky, it shines right through his window onto his face. In fact, it couldn’t pinpoint his eyelids better if it tried, so Alex opens his eyes and winds up looking right at the sun.

“Gah.” He closes his eyes and blindly scoots over to the side of the bed and grabs his phone from where it’s been charging— it’s only about three minutes until his alarm goes off, so that’s pretty good timing.

 

**Alex:** yeah im fine

**Alex:** its just so i dont hurt myself or anything

**Alex:** leaving now

 

He turns off his alarm, locates his shoes (one of which wound up under the bed, somehow), and heads out the door.

 

Madina’s van is parked outside the bar, so Alex knows he’s in the right spot, and once he gets inside, he finds Madina herself, at a table near the door playing a game on her phone. It’s not even six yet, so the bar’s pretty deserted, except for the last few groups finishing up their happy hours.

“Hey,” Alex says, sitting down at Madina’s table.

“‘Sup, how was your nap?”

“Enviable.”

“Awesome. Kate’s bringing in the amps, Ace is in the bathroom, I think, and Elliot and Danny aren’t here yet but they will be. Just probably not soon enough that they’ll be here before you meet Ace and Kate.”

“So is there anything I should know before I meet them? I mean, I’ve already heard some stuff from Elliot, but that’s mostly either complaining or talking about YouTube.” Elliot spends enough time at Vindicators HQ for them to be friends, but not enough for Alex to have a deep and abiding understanding of the dynamics between Elliot and his other friends. (That would probably take a lot more time than either of them has.)

“Kate’s an angel, Ace can be kind of a dick but he’s usually pretty cool. And I think he’s over Elliot by now, so he’ll probably be passably nice to you.”

“Oh. Um, that’s detail I did not get from Elliot.”

“I’m not surprised, but Ace and Danny are pretty much friends now, so I don’t think it’ll be relevant. Just good to know. Hey, Kate! Come meet Alex!” That last part is shouted to a woman who’s just deposited an amp on the stage.

“Hi, I’m Kate,” she says as she hops down to the floor and walks over to their table. “You’re Danny’s brother, right?”

“Yeah, and I work with Madina.”

“Oh, cool, what’s that like?”

“Stressful,” Alex and Madina say at the same time.

“Wow. Glad you could get some time off.”

“Me too,” Alex says. “You’re the drummer?”

“Mhm. And I keep the rest of them in line.”

“I’m guessing that’s not very easy.”

“Nope.”

“Danny and Elliot are here,” Madina says, right as they walk in.

“Hey, Alex!” Elliot says.

“Sorry we’re a little late,” Danny says.

Kate nods at the stage, which has a couple amps and a bass drum on it. “We’re not even done setting up, we’ll be fine as long as Elliot’s guitar didn’t break all its strings.”

“Probably not, unless it did after I put it in the case.”

“So, I think we’re fine.”

Elliot glances around the bar. “Besides, we’re not even the last people here. Where’s Ace? Thought you all carpooled over here.”

“We did,” Kate says. “Last I saw, he was trying to get concealer out of his shirt.”

“I thought he was in the bathroom,” Madina says.

“He is? That’s where the sinks are.”

“Oh, right, that makes sense.”

“Anyway, I gave him some makeup wipes, so he should be out soon— called it. Hey, Ace, get over here!” she calls to a guy emerging from a door marked ‘customers only’, wringing out a black shirt.

“And of course the shirt’s wet so he can’t wear it,” Elliot says.

“Of course,” the guy agrees. He has a green mohawk and a bunch of tattoos, and the more Alex looks at him, the more he looks like—  _ Neighbor Guy?! _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alex is much more of a human disaster than he appears  
> once again, no idea when the next one will be up but i'll try to make it soon! thanks for reading/kudosing/commenting! :) :) <3  
> -birl


	4. Chapter 3: Ace

“Well, at least you’re not getting any illusions about how clothed Ace is on a daily basis,” Kate says to the other guy at the table. The incredibly tall guy that Ace almost walked into in the hallway outside their apartments because he’d stopped for no apparent reason, who is now sitting at a table with Madina, Danny, Elliot, and Kate. (His hair is a little more rumpled now than it was earlier today.)

“Alex, Ace. Ace, Alex,” Madina says. 

“Uh, hi,” the guy says, who seems about as bewildered as Ace is. Who is apparently Alex, Danny’s brother. Who Elliot was completely right about being ridiculously attractive—  _ fuck, Elliot was completely right—  _ wait, he said hi.

“Hey,” Ace says, and then, because it’s the first thing that comes to mind, he says, “You seem more awake now.”

Alex blinks. That probably wasn’t what he expected Ace to open with. (It wasn’t what Ace expected himself to open with, either, so at least they’re on the same page.) “Yeah, I took a nap.”

“Cool, you won’t fall asleep in the middle of the set, then. Not that I thought you would. I’m too exciting for that to happen.” Ace almost winks, but then he thinks better of it. This  _ is _ his ex’s boyfriend’s brother, after all.

“Do you know each other?” Elliot says.

“We’re apparently neighbors,” Alex says right as Ace says, “I almost walked into him earlier today and he didn’t notice.”

“Wait, you did?”

“Yup. Almost clipped you with my guitar case, too. You must have been really out of it.”

“You’re  _ neighbors?” _ Kate asks.

“We live on the same floor.”

“We live right next to each other,” Alex corrects him.

“Wow, I can’t believe we’ve never run into each other before today.”

“I, uh, keep weird hours.”

“So do I. Huh.”

“Right!” Madina says. “Now that that’s all figured out, how about we do sound check? Since we were supposed to do that five minutes ago.”

“Did you get the concealer out of your shirt?” Kate asks as they head to the stage.

“Not enough, it’ll have to actually go in the washing machine. If I have time I’ll see if Madina can drive me back so I can get another one, not that it matters that much.” Ace drops the shirt in question on the edge of the stage. Once it dries out, he can see if the stain is indistinct enough that he can wear it— it’ll just get crumpled up on the floor again, anyway. “Of course this would happen the one day I carpooled with her.”

“It  _ is _ technically the band van, it just lives with Madina.”

“She doesn’t trust me to drive it. No idea why.”

“That’s right, and it’s because you can’t park to save your life and the way you accelerate inspires me to write a parody of ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ titled ‘Shaky Brake-y Start’,” Madina says over her shoulder.

“I see,” Kate says. “I have black eyeliner in my bag, so we can color over it if we have to.”

Ace sighs as he picks up his guitar. “I know it’s going in the wash like immediately, but I’d still rather minimize the damage.”

“I spilled like half of Kate’s concealer all over my pants once and it washed out the first time I put it in the washing machine,” Elliot says. 

“That was  _ you?” _

“Yeah, sorry about that. I  _ did _ get you another one, though.”

“I guess you’re fine. Just don’t do it again.”

“It was like two years ago, Kate. I haven’t done it again.”

“Still.”

 

Sound check only takes a couple minutes, most of which are occupied by trying to find the right level for the mic (Ace is pretty sure the thing is cursed to change every time they finish a gig, because they  _ always _ have to reset it). He’s sort of aware of Danny and Alex watching from their table, and the last happy hour people finishing their drinks and leaving, but mostly he’s focusing on how the intro for their third song  _ still _ doesn’t sound quite right and Madina wants to rework the bass line but  _ they don’t have time for that, Madina _ and Kate thinks the problem is too much lead guitar and Elliot thinks the problem is too much rhythm guitar but it sounds better when they just up the drums and they really need to workshop that song tomorrow and just work with it the way it is tonight.

“We have like three hours,” Madina says. “If I figure something out before eight, we’ll have enough time to rehearse it before we go on. I won’t change it  _ that _ much.”

“Seven forty-five?” Kate says. “We might have to change the rhythm guitar too, depending on what you’re doing.”

“I’ll try to keep it within the same chord progression, but sure. That work for you, Ace?”

“Yeah, I’ll just work on it with you, since it looks like we’re doing this.”

“We are totally doing this. I have scratch paper in the van, be right back. And I’ll ask if we can use a back room so we don’t have to do our workshopping where the audience can see us.” Madina makes a beeline for the door as Ace picks up his shirt from the front of the stage.

Kate claps him on the shoulder. “Have fun.”

“Madina’s probably going to change like two notes and call it done, I’ll be back in like twenty minutes, tops.”

 

He is not back in twenty minutes, tops.

It’s been forty-five minutes and Madina’s managed to change her rhythm in the bridge and make her walking bass line more complicated, but nothing has happened yet that actually changes the chord progressions, and if he doesn’t do something soon, she’ll start reworking the entire song (and then the entire set) and they just do not have time for that. Ace’s shirt is nearly dry.

“We need to focus on the intro,” Ace reminds her.

“Yeah, I was about to start on that.”

“Sure, Madina.”

“Shhh.”

Ace swipes over his guitar with his jeans-covered knee, to get rid of the hand prints. Then he does it again. And again, because he had to hold the guitar with his hands to wipe off the body and now the neck is covered in hand prints. “Madinaaaaa.”

“Aaaaaaaaace.” Madina plays a couple notes. “I’m almost done, shut up so I can focus.”

She scratches something off the paper (there aren’t any chairs or tables in this room, so the scratch paper is on the carpet, and the combination of the rough carpet and the sharp pencil means that Madina has torn a couple of holes in the paper already), writes in something else, and says, “Done. Let’s go grab Elliot and Kate. Tiff and whoever she’s bringing should be here by now, they’ll keep Danny and Alex company.”

“Oh my god, finally,” Ace says as they stand up and he pushes the door open.

“It was literally less than an hour, why did you commit to working on it with me if you were going to just sit there and not do anything?”

“I thought you were going to just do the intro.”

“When have I ever started working on a song and actually restrained myself to the part I said I would restrain myself to?”

“Well, we’re discussing my reasoning, not if it’s right or not.”

“Hm. Good deflection.”

“Thanks, I try.”

“Hey, you done?” Kate says when they emerge from the ‘employees only’ section (technically, they  _ are _ employees whenever they’re playing there).

“Yeah,” Madina says. “Didn’t change much, but I still want to go through the changes so nobody gets surprised and fucks up onstage.”

“Sounds good.” She gets up, taps Elliot on the shoulder because he’s still telling Danny about the second IHOP incident, and the four of them troop back into the ‘employees only’ section and locate the room where Madina has been working on the bass line and Ace has been complaining about how long it’s taking.

The door has barely swung closed behind them before Elliot sits down, plunks his hands down on the floor, and says, “Okay, Ace, I told you to wait until you met Ace before deciding whether calling him ‘ridiculously attractive’ is an objective statement or not. Now you’ve met him. Tell me.”

“Eh, he’s pretty hot,” Ace says nonchalantly. “Not my type, though.”

“You winked at him, though.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not, and I already said he was hot. That answers your question.”

“That just proves it’s an objective statement.”

“Sure.”

“So I haven’t changed much that affects anyone else,” Madina says, laying her paper flat on the floor. “Kate, I changed the bass line in the bridge to be off-beat, so when that comes up, I promise it’s not because I’ve lost all sense of rhythm. And I changed the G in the part at the beginning to be a D so that beat is going to sound weird to us, but it checks out harmonically, so the audience won’t think someone fucked up. So just do what you were doing before and don’t freak out when I do something different.”

“Sounds good,” Kate says. “Want to head back? Rodney couldn’t make it tonight, but hopefully that’ll make things _ less _ overwhelming.”

“Rodney is... a lot,” Elliot agrees.

The bar is slowly starting to fill up, with each chair being claimed in order of how close it is to the drinks. The only exception is their table, which is decently far, but anyone who sits there can see the stage really well, which is why they always choose it when they’ve got friends along (which is most of the time because Tiff usually has nothing better to do and Rodney... well, Ace doesn’t actually know why Rodney comes to their gigs, but he won’t question it. He’s not here tonight anyway, so it’s irrelevant).

“Hey!” Tiff says as Ace, Madina, and Kate take seats (Ace slings his shirt over the back of his— it’s dry, but the stain is still very visible) and Elliot drags another chair to their table. “How did the last-minute changing things go?”

“Not as bad as it could have been,” Ace says.

Danny looks between both of them and then at his chair, which is in between Tiff’s and Alex’s, and says, “I can move if you want to sit next to each other?”

_ Huh? _

It takes Ace a moment to realize why Danny is looking at him so confusedly (he’s probably looking back in exactly the same way, which isn’t helping). Then he remembers the last time he, Danny, and Tiff were all in a room together was last month. “We broke up a few weeks ago,” Ace says.

Tiff, who has a similar look of realization on her face, adds, “Thanks, though.”

“Wait, really?” Elliot says. “Why?”

“We never tried to see each other outside of gigs, so it wasn’t really worth the effort, so the conversation was over in like ten seconds. I was like ‘hey, maybe we should break up’ and Ace was just like ‘yeah, makes sense.’”

Madina blinks. “Ace, did you just not say anything?”

“He told me,” Kate volunteers. “Because I asked him flat out if he was still dating Tiff, because Tiff had already mentioned it and I wanted to confirm. Since Ace didn’t say anything.”

Ace shrugs. “Totally slipped my mind.”

“Amazing,” Madina says. “That sounds more like something Elliot would do.”

“I mean, I feel like I’m more likely to overshare,” Elliot says.

“That’s true,” Ace says.

 

Ace doesn’t have dinner with the rest of them, because he doesn’t have dinner. He’s learned the hard way that food, whether it has dairy in it or not, will fuck up his singing if he eats less than four or five hours before performing. That’s why their afterparties always have such a well-stocked snack table, and nobody questions Ace stationing himself next to it for at least a solid hour. Before their set, the rest of the table together definitely gets enough food to make up for him not eating, though.

Ace knows Danny eats fast, and Danny has mentioned that Alex does too, but that doesn’t stop his  _ astonishment _ when both of them finish their food in the time that it takes everyone else to eat about half. He’s not the only one, either.

“Is that genetic? It has to be genetic,” Elliot says.

“It’s habit,” Danny says.

“My metabolism hates me,” Alex says.

“Probably not genetic, then,” Kate says once she’s done chewing. 

Alex and Danny shrug at almost exactly the same time.

Madina finishes her food, then Elliot, then Kate, and then the four of them get up. Ace doesn’t bother to grab his shirt. It wouldn’t have lasted long anyway.

“See you on the other side,” Madina says to the rest of the table before they make their way towards the stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ace is a mess. alex is a mess. they're both messes it's perfect  
> whoop whoop!! another chapter!!  
> not sure when the next one is going to be up. it's mostly done, but i'll be traveling for the next couple days and then school starts getting in motion, so i'll be much busier from here on out. i'll try to get chapters written as fast as possible, though!  
> as always, thanks so much for reading, kudosing, and commenting! <3  
> -birl


	5. Chapter 4: Alex

Weird coincidences are pretty much the driving force in Alex’s life. That’s nothing new.

They’re there when Crank and Dispatch never manage to turn up at the same time as the people in blue masks, and when the guy Danny resurrects turns out to be annointed, and when Zipper gives him a salt shaker five minutes before Eli realizes Alex has done something against regulation and comes to yell at him, and on and on. He’s no stranger to them, but this is definitely a more bewildering one.

Alex had always known that Neighbor Guy was a musician. There are guitar picks and strings arranged like decorations on one of his side tables, and he has a couple of posters for their gigs lying around— which, come to think of it, all said ‘Ace and the Diamond Dogs’ on them, so maybe Alex only has himself to blame for being caught so off guard. (Although he has had more pressing things to think about lately.)

And now Alex has learned Neighbor Guy’s name, but not exactly in the way he thought he would. No casual ‘hey, what’s your name?’, no waiting for the guy to just introduce himself, just “Alex, Ace. Ace, Alex,” and Alex trying not to gape like a fish. (And no verdict on whether he succeeded at that or not.)

All in all, it was not his finest moment. At least Ace had seemed a little taken by surprise too. He’d blinked several times before saying hey in a tone of voice that implied he was still processing everything. (And then he told Alex he looked more awake, so he must have caught up quickly.)

Everything Elliot had ever said about Ace was also completely unhelpful when it came to actually meeting him, because yes, he’s enthusiastically shirtless, and yes, he’s cocky in a way that he’s never been around Redshift, and yes, Alex could have sworn he’d winked at him, and yes, the grin Ace gave him could definitely be described as ‘roguish’ (and Alex is having a hard time believing he just described it that way himself, considering how disbelieving he’d been when Elliot had said it), but either Elliot is playing up Ace’s dickishness, or Ace is toning it down tonight. Or both.

“So was tonight your first time meeting the rest of the band?” Tiff asks him.

“Yeah, I knew Elliot and Madina already, and Ace and I are neighbors but neither of us knew that until today, so obviously we never interacted.”

“Oh, wow. Have you heard their stuff?”

“No, I haven’t had the time. I just got unexpected time off work, so I figured I might as well come.”

“He’s not mentioning that Elliot and Madina have been bugging him about it for months,” Danny adds.

“Honestly, I don’t remember why I started coming,” she says. “Although I think it was when I was dating Elliot, so that’s probably why.”

Apparently the romantic history of this band is a lot more complicated than either Elliot or Madina has made it out to be. Alex has only been here for a couple hours and three different ex-couples have been mentioned, but Danny hasn’t blinked at any of them, so apparently they’re old news.

“So you’re here a lot, then?”

“Yeah, I’m a fan.”

“Rodney usually comes a lot too,” Danny says. “Between the three of us, someone’s always here.”

Lights blaze, pointed at the stage, where Ace, Madina, Elliot, and Kate are poised to begin their set.

“Ace onstage is normal Ace times a million,” Tiff says as the band introduces themselves.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll see.”

And he does.

It’s not like Ace has flipped a switch, exactly, but he’s definitely dialed himself up to eleven. The audience and the lights bring out charisma in him that seems a lot more sparkly and appealing than when he’s just Ace as himself, instead of Ace, the frontman that has everyone’s gaze fixed on him as he stands in a spotlight on a makeshift stage in a bar. Yeah, ‘sparkly’ is the right word. 

Their first song (wow, they’ve only gotten through one song) ends, and during the cheers, Alex says to Tiff, “I get it.”

“Yeah,” she says.

 

The rest of the set blows by after that. If Alex knew the music better, he’d probably be able to distinguish between the songs more, but as it is, the easiest ways for him to separate them in his mind are the tempo and whether Ace or Elliot is singing. There’s one song with a bass line that thrums through the speakers straight into the ground, and that’s pretty much Madina’s song. 

The songs blurring together aside, it’s more to his tastes than he expected, and he finds himself tapping his fingers on his thigh in time with the beat. When Ace announces their last song, it comes as a surprise— he hasn’t been paying attention to how many have gone by.

The last one is a crowd-pleaser, and it’s incredibly catchy, so Alex is pretty sure it’s going to be stuck in his head for the rest of the night, which is probably exactly what’s supposed to happen. 

Kate breaks a drumstick, tosses the pieces onto the stage (and Alex thinks he almost hears the barest whisper of a ‘what the fuck Kate’ coming through Elliot’s mic), and grabs a new one from a stockpile next to her stool all in less than a second, and Ace dances around the stage during the instrumental break, and then it’s over, and they all do a complicated sort of fist bump slash high five that may or may not be completely improv, and the lights on the stage go down, and Ace and Madina and Elliot and Kate are leaving the stage— everyone takes their instruments, except Kate— and they make a beeline for the table where Tiff and Alex and Danny are still sitting.

“We’re gonna get all our equipment into the van, then we’re heading to the afterparty,” Madina says. “How was it, Alex?”

“It was great,” he says. “I’m glad I finally managed to come.”

“Told you that you were missing out,” she says smugly, and then she and Kate head back to the stage and start grabbing pieces of the drum kit.

“Didn’t fall asleep, then?” Ace says as he tosses his shirt over his arm.

“Hm, I’ll get back to you on that,” Alex says, and Ace laughs and follows the others back to the stage. After Elliot finishes a quick conversation with Danny, he does the same. Tiff excuses herself to use the bathroom before they head out.

“I’m gonna head to the afterparty for a bit, but you don’t have to go,” Danny says. “I’ve only been to like two and people skip all the time if they don’t feel like it, so if you want to sleep or something you can just go home.”

“I’ll probably do that,” Alex says. “I should try to stay on a normal schedule, even though I did sleep for like four hours already today.”

Danny narrows his eyes at him. “Don’t patrol.”

“I won’t. Don’t want to make it worse.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good for anyone.”

“I’m gonna go,” Alex says as he gets up from their table. “Let me know the next time you’re going, and I’ll try to come again.”

“Oh, that’ll be great. I have their schedule for the next couple of weeks, I’ll send it to you.” Danny pulls out his phone and goes into his email, then turns his phone back off and sticks it in his pocket. “Forwarded you the document.”

Alex’s phone buzzes. “Thanks. See you later.”

“See you,” Danny says as Alex leaves the table.

 

His phone buzzes again when he’s opening the door to his apartment. He closes (and locks, because it’s not like he sleeps in his Redshift mask and he’d rather avoid random people coming into his apartment in the first place) the door, gets his shoes off one-handedly while dumping his keys on the end table under the coat rack, and turns on his phone, and it turns out to be a text.

 

**Kim:** so how is ur first day of sick leave

**Alex:** fine lol

**Alex:** i went to see elliot and madinas band

**Alex:** theyre good

**Kim:** glad it was a good day bc eli is calling u in for tomorrow

**Alex:** ??

**Kim:** not to work, for like tests n shit

**Alex:** oh

**Alex:** fun

**Kim:** yeah good luck

 

It’s still early— well, not really, it’s as dark outside as it gets in the middle of LA at night, but it’s early enough that on a normal night, Alex would be in the middle of patrolling— so Alex sticks his last box of takeout in the microwave (it’s probably either noodles or spinach, and he needs to go grocery shopping at some point), and checks the Diamond Dogs’ schedule that Danny sent him while it’s in there (they perform pretty frequently— no wonder Elliot and Madina are so all over the place all the time), and when it’s done heating up, he sits himself down on the couch and turns on the TV. It is a wild night for Alexander Becket. He even goes to bed earlier than usual.

 

When Alex wakes up, he has a text from Eli, who’s clearly invoked his nicest bedside manner, which is so unnecessary of him that Alex is almost equally nice.

 

**Eli:** Just in case Kim didn’t tell you, I’m calling you in today, we’re going to do some tests and figure out exactly what the fuck is going on

**Alex:** did someone take ur phone or did u just get a personality transplant

 

His phone indicates that Eli is typing for a very long time before he sends a reply.

 

**Eli:** Shut up and haul your ass to Mission Control

**Alex:** theres the real eli

**Eli:** Only for you

**Alex:** i knew i was special

**Eli:** Shut up, haul ass

**Alex:** okaaaaaaaaaaaay

 

And, well, he doesn’t quite haul ass, but he does speedwalk, so that’s probably more than Eli was hoping for, in all honesty.

As usual, when he gets to Mission Control, he goes completely unnoticed by pretty much everyone. Nobody except the Vindicators and the actual people at Mission Control know the supers’ secret identities, so as far as everyone else is concerned, Alex is just an extraordinarily tall colleague who works in some other building. Nobody’s ever asked. The number of people who work here is large enough and the stuff they do is confidential enough that they stick to their own jobs and the people they actually know.

He opens the door to Mission Control and almost walks straight into Eli.

“Were you just standing right inside the doorway?”

“No, you just opened the door at the right time,” Eli says, stepping out of Mission Control and beckoning for Alex to follow him. “Or the wrong time. It’s up to you. We’re heading to the lab. You don’t have to do much, just sit there and don’t cause problems.” He stops in the middle of the hallway for a moment, says, “Actually, for you, that might be a lot,” and then starts walking again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> school is starting so i don't know how fast i'll be able to write chapters. hopefully i can post them semi-regularly though  
> as always, thanks for reading, kudosing, and commenting! <3  
> -birl


	6. Chapter 5: Ace

The more times they go to the boss’s headquarters, the less sure Crank is that he’ll ever get used to the building.

It looks like a plain office building, outside and inside, but they never see anybody else there. There’s a straight hallway from the entrance to the only room that Crank and Dispatch have ever been in— the boss’s office. They pass by brightly lit walls, potted plants, closed doorways, and security cameras that make no secret of their presence, and all of that combined with the complete stillness and silence feels pretty Uncanny Valley. That’s not helped by the fact that the door to the boss’s office slides open when they’re twelve feet away and closes, far more abruptly, when they’re barely twelve inches into the office.

Crank has never liked this office, either.

Like the rest of the building, it’s furnished nicely, and the walls are painted a bland but inoffensive color, but Crank just doesn’t like the door, and the way that the shadows fall directly across the desk so he can never quite make out the boss unless they lean forward.

He has absolutely zero idea if the other rooms are like this too, or if the boss only bothers with it in the office. That’s probably not going to be an important question, though, because the whole time that Crank and Dispatch have worked for them, the boss hasn’t even hinted at using another room. The rest of the building is basically just liminal space for Crank and Dispatch.

Dispatch is the one who starts out giving their report to the boss. It’s the same as last time. Redshift seems to be lying low, so their patrols are pretty boring. Even if Crank hadn’t seen Redshift acting injured with his own two eyes, he would definitely have guessed that by now, because it’s been several days with no sign of him, which is about eight million times longer than that usually lasts for.

They’ve made the exact same report multiple times (any sign of Redshift? No. Other Vindicators covering for him? Yeah. Any rumors about him being injured? No), and every time they finish repeating themselves faster. Usually, they leave right after that, but this time, the door doesn’t slide open as soon as they’re done like before.

Nobody says a word for a second, then two, then three, then— 

The boss’s elbows settle on the desk. “I know how Redshift got injured.”

Crank can feel his eyes get wider, but he doesn’t say anything. Neither does Dispatch, although she tilts her head to the side. He’s not sure why she’s quiet, but he just doesn’t like being here, so he’s committed to trying to finish their reports as fast as possible. That means not getting sidetracked with unimportant questions like ‘how’. 

One of the boss’s hands leaves the desk, goes into a drawer, and comes back with a picture. “This is why.”

It’s a grainy black-and-white photograph, not because it’s old but because it’s from a security feed, which is weird because Crank isn’t sure how the boss got access and he doesn’t think he wants to know, either. In the picture, Redshift is easily recognizable, even without the distinctive color scheme. He’s fighting someone in a jumpsuit and a ski mask.

“Who is that?” Crank says.

“That’s not important.” Well, so much for his theory of only asking important questions. “What is important is that there are a whole lot of other people wearing exactly the same thing, going around and attacking Vindicators. They never make demands or stay to finish them off, but they do seem organized. You know what that means.”

“It means there’s someone organizing them.”

“Yes. Someone I know nothing about, who is temporarily taking out Vindicators. Since Redshift seems to be out, and I’m not paying you to skulk, your job until he’s back is to find out more about this new player, and whether they’re a threat or an ally.”

“How do we know when he’s back?” Dispatch asks.

“You’ll know,” the boss says, settling back into the chair and putting the photograph back into the desk. “Dismissed.”

The door slides open, and Crank and Dispatch turn and walk out.

They go past the closed doors, past the other hallways and the bright lights and the lobby and the lobby is where they turn and go through the side corridor and back out the side door and keep going. It’s a few blocks before either of them says anything.

“Weird,” Dispatch says.

“Yeah. How do you think we’re supposed to watch the new person? I’ve never seen any of those people the boss said were attacking the Vindicators.”

She shrugs. “Maybe we should look for them. Help them out in a fight, something like that. They should at least be willing to talk to us after that.”

“I guess.”

“The boss said they never finish anyone off. We won’t have to do that, then.”

“Yeah,” Crank says. “Yeah, you’re right. We should do that.”

“I wonder how long Redshift’s going to be out, though. He might be back before we know anything.”

“I don’t know. He’s been gone forever. Tomorrow would be as good a time for him to come back as any.”

“Yeah, I think so too, but that’s not going to stop me from waiting until tomorrow to start looking for the new person. I’m gonna head home.”

“Same. See you tomorrow. Usual time?”

“Yeah.” Dispatch takes a sharp turn and heads off in another direction, probably for a more efficient route. Crank continues in the same direction. It’s not strictly the fastest way home, but as long as he’s getting new Vindicators to fight, with no sign of Redshift, he might as well spend some time thinking about nothing but walking around.

It’s only a couple minutes later when he spots a flash of red zipping around a corner.

_ Wait a fuck. Is that—  _

The red is gone.

Hm. He can either continue on his merry way, or he can change his route to follow the red, just in case it might be Redshift out and about. But given how long Crank and Dispatch have been scrutinizing LA for any hint of him, that’s probably not the case.

Crank changes his route anyway. He already wasn’t going straight home, what’s another few minutes to prove he’s seeing things?

He rounds the same corner and looks as far down that street as he can.

Deserted.

Not that that means anything when it comes to Redshift, though. The guy could be halfway across the city or sprinting over rooftops by now.

Crank heads back to the other street and changes his route again, but this time it’s so that he can head straight home once he changes back. He has a feeling he’s spending too much time looking for Redshift.

 

Ace calls Kate the next morning and puts her on speaker while he replaces the B string on his guitar and tries not to get hit in the face with it. He’s gonna have to get more strings soon, because his A string is old and he’s only got an E left in the pack.

“What’s up?” Kate says. Ace can hear TV in the background.

“Nothing, really.” He sets the new string on the side table where he can grab it without getting up. “It’s just, did you see anything weird last night when you went home?”

“Besides some graffiti that had me seriously questioning the artist’s knowledge of the human body, no. Why?”

“It’s nothing. Thought I might have seen Redshift. It was probably just someone in a red jacket.”

“It would be really weird if you just happened to see him minutes after we left the boss’s office,” Kate agrees. “It was probably just your eyes playing tricks on you.”

“Probably,” Ace says. “So, tell me about that graffiti.”

Kate describes it for him, and she’s just remembered she took a picture and is sending it to him, and Ace is tuning his new string, and then he hears a  _ thump _ on the balcony.

Ace looks at the screen door.

He takes in the body in red and gold slumped against it.

He puts down his guitar.

“I’m gonna have to call you back,” he says. “Someone’s at the door and I think they’re lost.” Not the front door, and a massive understatement, but it’s technically accurate.

“Oh, okay,” Kate says. “I sent the picture to you. Bye.”

“Bye.” Ace hangs up, stands up, and opens the door, and the part of Redshift’s back that was being supported by said door flops down on the floor in Ace’s living room. It would be funny if it wasn’t so weird.

He pulls Redshift inside and shuts the screen door, and by the time he’s managed that, Redshift is already talking, which at least means he isn’t dead.

“This seems to keep happening,” Redshift says. He lets Ace pull him up onto the couch, which, by the way, is exactly as difficult as it looks, but Ace braces his feet and uses his core muscles and sure enough, Redshift winds up sitting on the couch. “Sorry again.”

“Why are you in uniform?” Ace asks. “I thought you were injured.”

“Hm? I didn’t tell you that, did I?”

Ace shrugs.

“Anyway, yeah, I was, but I’m fine now.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“No, I guess I don’t.”

“I don’t think you should be doing stuff if you’re randomly collapsing. That kinda seems like common sense to me.”

“I swear this is an unexpected turn of events.” Redshift makes himself comfortable. “Just testing the waters to see how fully healed I am.”

“Obviously not enough.” Ace sits down next to him. “Unless this is normal for you.”

“If it was, I wouldn’t be Redshift.”

“That makes sense.”

“I’ll be out of your hair for a while,” Redshift says. “You’re probably right about the randomly collapsing stuff.”

“Probably. Do you need like an Advil or something? Wait, does Advil even work on you?”

“It does, and nah, I can get back to my place pretty fast so I’ll just take it when I get back.”

Ace sniffs. “Since you keep eating my food, I guess that’s only appropriate.”

“You play guitar,” Redshift says. It’s not a question, but then, his face is turned directly towards Ace’s guitar, which is propped against the armrest of the couch.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Ace grabs it and goes back to tuning, since that still needs to happen before his next rehearsal. “Have you really never seen my guitar before? I’ve had it with me like every time I’ve found you here.”

“I think I might have had other priorities every other time I’ve been here?”

“Rude.”

“So what sort of stuff do you play?”

So Ace gives him the rundown on the band, and then Redshift asks, so he shows him some of the posters, and Redshift says, “Oh, those look pretty familiar. I’ll keep an eye out for them.”

“You will?”

“Yeah, why not? I might even come to a few. Not that you’ll know I’m there, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Ace says. “Because if you come as Redshift, you might upstage us.”

“And we can’t have that.” Redshift’s voice makes it sound like he’s smiling.

“No, we cannot. Thank you for your understanding.”

Redshift laughs, and then he coughs, which surprises Ace because he has never in his life heard Redshift cough or sneeze.

It puzzles Redshift too, who stops coughing and says, “I should get going.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah.” By the time Ace finishes saying that, Redshift is halfway onto the balcony. That’s how he always leaves. It would probably be a little conspicuous if Redshift wandered down the hallway every so often. Ace never enters his apartment as Crank, just in case of trackers or just people following him. Makes sense Redshift would do the same thing. Not that Crank and Dispatch have ever tried to follow him home.

“I’ll see you around,” Redshift says. “Maybe more than you think.”

“Did you steal that from a comic book?” Ace replies. Redshift shrugs, hops up onto the railing, and vanishes, in that order.

Well, Ace’s day just got weirder.

He grabs his phone and sees Kate’s graffiti picture in his texts and replies with  _ ‘wtf, also finished giving directions to the stranger’ _ , and decides to forget about seeing Redshift today. He’s obviously going back to not super-ing for a while, so it’s basically irrelevant to Crank and Dispatch anyway. And besides, it would take a lot of explanation once Kate realized that Ace had been hanging out with Redshift occasionally and neither told her about it nor told the boss about it.

So, he’s gonna forget about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I FINALLY GOT THIS UP!!!!!! ALSO IT'S A LONGER CHAPTER THAN USUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!  
> anyway rehearsals for my play just started so there'll probably be similar breaks in between chapters now, yikes. i'll do my best to get them out as fast as possible though! <3  
> thanks for reading, kudosing, and commenting!!  
> -birl


	7. Chapter 6: Alex

“I cannot  _ believe _ you went out on patrol already,” Eli says. “Did that whole spiel about not making it worse just fly into your sinuses instead of your brain?”

“Everything was fine for like two hours.”

“Two hours is not a lot of time, and in case you don’t remember, you were patrolling for four. Do me a favor and actively try not to get killed, instead of what you’re currently doing, which seems to be the polar opposite. Or at least  _ avoid _ it until we know what the fuck is wrong.”

“Do you?”

“Obviously not. I’ll send you the stuff we have so far, but besides basically getting tased repeatedly, we have no idea what those weapons have done. So  _ don’t put yourself in danger for no reason.” _

“So was there a reason you called me in today or did you just want to yell at me?”

“Oh, yeah.” Eli starts walking as he talks, and Alex can only assume he’s meant to come along. “Since clearly you can’t be trusted to keep yourself out of trouble, we have to keep you busy, and it’s been a long time since any of the Vindicators have done a press conference anyway.”

“What? You’re making me do press conferences?”

“Just one. But like I said, it’s been forever since we did one, so expect it to run long.”

“Ugh.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have gone on patrol so prematurely.”

“Can I file this under cruel and unusual punishment?”

“No.”

 

Redshift is reflecting on his life choices.

The Vindicators haven’t been avoiding the press on purpose, they just have never had the time to talk. The results of  _ that _ are obvious in the reporters, who all look more eager than kids in line for ice cream.

He’s barely at the podium before hands fly up. Bridget, who’s acting as the PR person (and probably nanny for Redshift) for right now, selects someone.

“The Vindicators have stated numerous times that the organization is too busy to hold press conferences,” the reporter says. “Why now, and why you to hold them?”

“There will never be a good time to have press conferences,” Redshift says. “We’re always busy. We may as well do them now. As for why me, why not me? Any of us could do it.”

The reporter doesn’t push on that, which is good, because Redshift would rather stay away from any questions that could even possibly relate to his injury.

Except that’s the last time a reporter  _ does _ stay away from it. Someone asks about the people in blue (it’s an collaboration with the police, they can’t talk about an ongoing investigation), and then someone asks about security footage, which Redshift really wants to know how they got because there aren’t supposed to be any registered security cameras on that street, showing someone dressed in something similar to Redshift’s uniform getting beat up by said people in blue (as he’s said, they’re in the process of an investigation, and he can’t say anything more on the topic), and then someone else asks  _ again _ why he’s doing a press conference now if they’re in the middle of an investigation, and Redshift reiterates what he said the first time someone asked, and funnily enough, he’d almost rather be getting chewed out by Eli right now. 

Almost.

Eventually, the press figure out that Redshift isn’t going to say anything else about the people in blue or why they’re having a press conference, and they stick to other questions (finally). Still, it drags and drags, although he does get an opportunity to read Grasshopper’s and Deathwish’s statements about their genders. Eli had deposited the papers in his hands with the air of someone who was unbelievably prepared, which makes Redshift wonder how long he’d been planning this.

Finally, it ends, and Redshift does his best not to look like he’s running away when he leaves the podium and heads for the door that goes back into HQ. Bridget follows him, and she takes the statements from him and says, “Once you’re out of your uniform, head to Mission Control. Eli wants to hold a meeting with the Vindicators.”

“Oh, that can’t be good,” Redshift says, but he nods anyway and gets going.

 

His suspicions are confirmed pretty quickly when Eli (holding a folder and wearing a tie and generally looking like a mundane manifestation of corporate hell) opens the meeting with “So, Alex just did a press conference and didn’t fuck anything up that I noticed, which is good, because we are going to be pretty busy for a while.” He pauses to make sure he’s got everyone’s attention, which he does, then keeps going. “One of those reporters asked about some leaked security footage. That would be pretty routine, except the spot they mentioned doesn’t have any cameras in a hundred-foot radius. Or at least it didn’t, because it does now.”

This is where the folder comes in, apparently. Eli opens it up, takes out a piece of paper, mutters something about a multimedia room, and hands the paper to Zipper with instructions to pass it around the table by handing it to the person next to him, not by just stretching his arms.

“This,” Eli says, “is a shot from footage taken by a security camera no more than eight feet away from Redshift’s last encounter with the people in blue. Isaiah checked the area as soon as someone brought it up in the meeting, and she couldn’t find even a trace of a camera. That means either that somebody was very stupid or somebody was very clever. Or maybe both.”

The picture is still making its way around the table, but Alex was there, so he uses his imagination to supplement what’s probably a picture of him getting the shit beat out of himself.

“Both?” Kim asks. “How could it be both?”

“Someone either put a camera there and took it away without realizing it had any footage of Redshift on it, put a camera there and realized it had footage of Redshift on it and panicked and took it away, or put a camera there and intentionally leaked the footage.” Which kind of makes it sound like they’re talking about a sex tape. “Whatever it is, that doesn’t change the fact that someone is in possession of a security camera— or just a camera— that neither we nor the police can access, which I know because I asked. So whoever they are, they’re going to be a problem, and I am betting that they’re working with the people in blue.”

Samira frowns. “Do we know literally anything else about them?”

“Nope.”

“Great.”

“Yup,” Eli says. “That’s why we need to start figuring things out. So as of today, we’re going to start planting trackers on the people in blue. I don’t know if it’ll help or if they’ll disable them before we can learn anything, but it’s a start, and if they disable the trackers then we know they can do that and we can try other things. And keep sending your location whenever you encounter them to Mission Control. Madina has quite the map of trouble spots.”

 

She really does, Alex discovers when he stops by to update her on the whole no patrol situation. In fact, she has two.

“Sometimes it’s cathartic to just shove pins into a wall,” Madina says. She has a map open on her computer that’s completely identical to the one hanging on the wall, except the one hanging on the wall has red string connecting the pins, which Alex has literally never seen anyone do outside of the movies. “Feel free to come by and help out with it if you get bored.” Her computer pings and a new pin pops up almost right on top of another one. Madina checks the screen, sighs, and starts looking for an angle where she can put another pushpin into the wall, since that spot on the map is already pretty densely packed with them. “This is such a mess.”

“Why are so many of them clustered around each other?”

“No idea, but there are pretty clear areas where they hang around. It’s just that nobody knows why they’re there.” Madina wedges the pin in. “Maybe I should start color-coding different pins to represent different quantities, because that is the only way I’m gonna be able to get through this.”

“Or you could try relying on the map on your computer?”

“But the  _ catharsis. _ ”

“Can’t you just stick pins in a wall randomly?”

“It’s more satisfying this way.”

“Okay, do it your way.”

“I will, thanks. Wait, did you actually have a reason to stop by or did you just want to bask in my presence?”

“I always want to bask in your presence,” Alex deadpans.

“Good. That’s how it should be.”

“Eli’s decided I’m not responsible enough to enforce my own break from patrolling, so I have to come to Mission Control and actually do stuff. So if you have any menial tasks that need to get done, please ask me to do them so he can’t make me do another press conference.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to do any more of those.”

“What, why not? Besides the obvious fact that they’re dead to me.”

“Because a whole bunch of conspiracy theories have popped up about you since that security feed got leaked. The most popular ones are that it was a double and that you’re actually a crap fighter, but there’s a pretty significant number of people wondering if you’re injured. And then there’s my favorite, which is the people who think the press is engaging in a smear campaign against you to turn public opinion around so nobody will care when you get replaced by a different super named Greenshift, and that’s where the details of that particular camp of conspiracy theorists get weird.”

“Oh,  _ that’s _ where it gets weird?”

“Well. Weirder.”

“As long as it gets me out of doing more press conferences, it can get as weird as it likes.”

“I hope it doesn’t, for all our sakes.”

Alex considers it. “That’s fair.”

“I think so too.”

Not long after that, Madina bids him farewell and promises to look into whether there are any papers that need stapling or coffee machines that need starting. She also warns him not to go out as Redshift again until he has her and Eli’s explicit approval on pain of being chained to a treadmill for the rest of his life, but well, you can’t have everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i can't really believe that *now* is the time my subconscious decided to finish this chapter, because i am in the midst of the audition process and almost fell asleep during dinner, and yet here we are. i am going to bed.  
> as always, thanks for reading, kudosing, and commenting! <3  
> -birl


	8. Chapter 7: Ace

Ace is tuning his guitar when Elliot checks his phone and announces, “Danny and Alex are here and they’re with Tiff and Rodney on the left.”

“House or stage?” Kate asks. Elliot shrugs and starts typing.

“This is like our eighth gig Alex’s come to,” Madina says. “We should’ve made him go on sick leave earlier.”

“House,” Elliot says. “Madina, you should tell him he’s a groupie.”

“I will if you swear to get me Starducks for the rest of the week.”

“No way, that’s unfair.”

“Have you seen his side-eye?”

“Whatever. How can you live with yourself knowing that you refused to do it when you could have?”

“Uh, I think  _ you’re _ the one who refused. And besides,” Madina says while opening the door of the green room with a flourish, “I think he knows it in his heart anyway.”

Madina’s probably right, but Ace doesn’t say that, because everyone is thinking it.

 

Ace can see the table that they’re at from the stage. Even with the lights down in the house, the light from the stage hits their faces and glints off Danny’s glasses and Rodney’s nose ring. Having them right there is kind of exhilarating. Usually they’re either far away or so far off to one side that Ace has to actually try if he wants to see them, but now he can make eye contact with Alex (who, being the tallest, is closest to Ace’s eye level while he’s onstage) without even moving his head.

“Are we keeping the set list change from last time?” Elliot says, carefully out of range of the mics.

“No,” Madina says from the other side of the stage, before Ace can answer. “That was just because I didn’t have time to do the right tuning before we got onstage.”

“Cool.” Elliot steps back to his usual spot. Ace twiddles with his earring for a second, then when nobody says anything else, steps up to the mic.

For Ace, performing is always a blur. He plunges into every song like he’ll never sing it again, which is great, but it also means he’s so in the moment that the vast majority of their songs have to start with either bass or drums (usually both), since Madina and Kate are the only ones who can remember the setlist. Ace’s unique form of autopilot hasn’t expanded to that part yet. He just ends the song and listens for the next one.

This time is no different. Ace scans the audience, but more because they’re all there is to look at than any other reason. Alex, Danny, Tiff, and Rodney are so close that more often than not, they’re where his eyes land. They’re usually looking right back at him— well, usually not for Danny, but for everyone else he makes eye contact pretty frequently.

The songs go by, and he switches off with Elliot a couple of times, and then he switches back, and then it’s over, and Ace is taking his guitar back to the makeshift greenroom where he can grab his case and put the guitar back in the van, which is parked in the front as usual, and it only takes him a minute to stick it in the back (most of that minute is spent waiting for Madina to get outside so she can unlock the van) and then head back inside.

“Great job,” Alex says when Ace is close enough to the table to hear him. “Danny already took off, but he also said it was really good. Did you write a new song?”

“Kate and Elliot did.”

“Cool, I liked it.”

Kate plops down into the empty seat on Ace’s other side. “Damn right you did, I wrote it.”

“Also, you’re a groupie,” Ace says, and then he turns to Madina and says, “You owe me a week of Starducks.”

“No I don’t, Elliot does,” she says.

Ace shrugs. “I’ll take it.”

“Somehow, I always knew you would do weird shit to win dares,” Alex says. “At least, I’m assuming that’s what that was.”

“Are you serious? That counts as weird shit to you?”

There’s a beat, then Alex says, “Come to think of it, no.”

“Good.”

 

Ace proceeds into his apartment with a little caution, but once again, Redshift isn’t there. He hasn’t been for a few weeks now, and it’s honestly probably the longest Ace has ever gone without seeing Redshift. Kinda weird. He still sees the guy on TV occasionally, but it looks like the Vindicators’ PR team has seized hold of him.

Ace checks the whole place, but there are no new bloodstains or scuffs on the floor, and all his windows are closed, so Redshift probably wasn’t there. 

It’s only a little past midnight, and he doesn’t have any plans before one tomorrow, so Ace plops down on the couch with the remnants of a bag of tortilla chips. He doesn’t have any salsa, but he’d rather eat them dry than not at all. So Ace stuffs a chip in his mouth and turns on the TV.

“—speculation about the Vindicators has reached new heights,” the news anchor says, because apparently Ace left the TV on a news channel. “Redshift continues to meet with press, although his sudden availability raises more questions than it answers, since the Vindicators continue to refuse to specify why Redshift in particular is doing press conferences. The overwhelming theory on social media is that Redshift has been injured in some way, although other members of the Vindicators staff contradict those claims, as does Redshift himself.”

The video changes from the anchor’s desk to a clip of Redshift in full super gear, standing at a podium with a ton of microphones in front of him. He’s the only person in the frame wearing something other than a suit, which makes it look kind of like he’s playing dressup.

“As I’ve said,” Redshift says, and he doesn’t sound particularly happy, “any of the Vindicators would be equally likely to be here at this time. I understand I’m not giving you much information about the investigation, but that doesn’t mean there’s a story somewhere else, and—”

A woman who’s standing slightly behind the podium, one of the people in suits, steps forward and murmurs something to Redshift, who nods to her, and then he turns his head back to face the journalists (and the camera, which Redshift seems to be looking straight at, but Ace knows from experience that Redshift has extraordinary peripheral vision) and says, “My apologies, I’m needed at Mission Control. Bridget will be happy to answer your questions.”

The woman in the suit takes Redshift’s place on the podium as he exits the room. If he’d been going any faster he would be shifting.

Ace’s phone buzzes right as the TV changes back to the anchor, so he takes the opportunity to mute her voice analyzing Redshift’s hasty exit. The subtitles are still on, but he can ignore those pretty well if he focuses his vision on the text he just got.

_ can’t make it to the next one :/ _ , it reads. 

Ace sends back a  _ who is this? _ , glances at the TV (the anchor has moved on to discussing a car crash from the afternoon), and decides ‘unknown number’ is probably more interesting.

The reply comes back quickly:  _ alex _

Well, that makes it pretty clear that Ace should add him to his contacts.

 

**creepy neighbor:** elliot gave me ur number

**Ace:** ok

**Ace:** why cant u come?

**creepy neighbor:** sadistic boss

**Ace:** reasonable

**creepy neighbor:** i have to go i’m cooking

**Ace:** should i buy a fire alarm?

**creepy neighbor:** i feel like u should already have one probably

**Ace:** as far as i know, nobody is planning arson near me

**creepy neighbor:** very few fires are arson

**Ace:** well they should be, might give the news something to talk about besides redshift

**creepy neighbor:** agreed

**creepy neighbor:** i’m pretty tired of hearing about him

**Ace:** i dont mind hearing about redshift, its the endless talking about the damn press conferences, they arent even that interesting

**creepy neighbor:** yeah they’re just the same thing over and over

**Ace:** yup

**Ace:** what are u cooking?

**creepy neighbor:** rice

**Ace:** just rice?

**Ace:** why do u need to go then, its fuckin rice

**creepy neighbor:** shut up

**Ace:** can i have some?

**creepy neighbor:** not anymore u can’t

**Ace:** ugh

**creepy neighbor:** ttyl

**Ace:** rude

**Ace:** ttyl

 

Their next gig is a couple days later, and, true to his word, Alex doesn’t show.

“Yeah, he’s back at work now,” Madina says when Ace comments on it. “I don’t think he ever formally decided on a return date, so I’m pretty sure his boss just called him one day and demanded that he come back.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah, he’s an interesting guy.”

“Alex or his boss?”

“Yes.”

 

When Ace steps into his apartment and a somewhat muffled voice says, “oh God, you’re finally back,” he has to back up and check that he’s in the right apartment. He is, so that only leaves one option, since Elliot left the afterparty early to go meet up with Marcus and Kate, as far as Ace knows, is still there.

“I was beginning to think you were done trespassing,” he says as he flicks the light on. Redshift is sprawled out on the couch with his face in a pillow. “Can you even breathe?”

“If I can’t, it’s news to me,” Redshift replies. “You would not believe the day I’ve had.”

“Pretty sure I would if you told me.”

Redshift says something that’s either a garbled attempt at Italian or an expression of severe pain. “Fucking  _ reporters. _ ”

“How are your conferences going?”

There’s that sound again. Maybe he’s trying to make out with the pillow.

“Extremely fun,” Ace deduces.

Redshift picks up his face from the pillow to stare at Ace (Ace can only assume he’s glaring behind the mask), but that makes it look like he’s doing a seal pose, and Ace says so, which makes Redshift slam his face into the pillow again.

“I’m going to take off my eyeliner and heat up some takeout, and then I am coming in here and sitting on that couch whether there’s room or not.”

“What kind of takeout?”

“Greek.”

Redshift does the seal pose thing again.

“Fine, you can have some.”

He sits up properly and scoots over so there’s room for Ace on the couch. “Times like this make me consider you one of my favorite civilians.”

Ace snorts and heads for the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i FINALLY posted another chapter whooo!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry for the long break btw, i had a show (but we ended last week). at least this is a little on the longish side! now i'm off to do more homework, unless i decide writing the next chapter is just too irresistible.  
> anyway thank you for reading, kudosing, and especially commenting <3  
> love, birl


	9. Chapter 8: Alex

Redshift has to admit that winding up in Ace’s apartment was entirely intentional this time. It had been intentional pretty much from the second that Eli looked at him and said ‘you’re giving an exclusive.’ The fact that he knows that Ace usually comes home from a gig and immediately gets food out is just a bonus.

He can hear the microwave, which is more of a pleasant background hum than anything, and the couch is so comfortable that he’s pretty sure he could fall asleep right here— and then the microwave starts beeping and it is no longer peaceful.

“Fuck, you kind of forget how loud that is until it’s the middle of the night,” Ace says from the kitchen.

“What if your neighbors wake up?”

“They probably haven’t gone to bed yet, so I don’t think that matters.”

“And if they come by to yell at you, you can just give them food and they’ll go away.”

“I only know one of my neighbors, I don’t want to give away my food to random people.” Ace reappears from the kitchen with some boxes of takeout and a handful of chopsticks. “I don’t even know if he likes Greek food.”

“Probably. It’s good shit.”

“You’re probably right.” Ace deposits the takeout on the edge of the coffee table closest to the couch and sits in the space Redshift left. He grabs one of the containers and passes some chopsticks to Redshift. “So, why the tantrum?”

Redshift lets his head fall back onto the back of the couch, which is restraint on his part, really. “I’ve been answering overly invasive questions for like eight  _ years. _ I’m honestly surprised nobody asked what my shoe size is.”

“I can ask you right now if it’ll make you feel better?”

“ _ No.” _

Ace shrugs. “Oh, well.”

“And ranting, alone at home, to myself, is just really sad. So I’m imposing.”

“And I am honored.” Ace drops a piece of spinach, but it lands back in the box of takeout, so he just lets out a quiet “Fuck” and picks it up again, this time actually managing to eat it.

“Why do you only have chopsticks?”

“Madina has all my spoons.”

“...Why?”

“A bet.” Ace sets that box down on the table and opens a few others before settling on something else that looks like it has rice. “So you live alone?”

“Yeah. I mean, it would be kind of hard to hide the whole super thing.”

“I kinda assumed the Vindicators lived together.”

“Oh, some of us do, but I was already living here by the time I knew any of them well enough to want to live with them, and my apartment only has one bedroom.”

“Same.”

“I know.”

Ace raises his eyebrows. “Have you been going through my apartment?”

“I was looking for the bathroom?” Actually, it’s got the same floor plan as his own, but the reason he knows that is because he was looking for the bathroom and it was in exactly the same spot, so this is basically the truth.

“Did you find it?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” Ace jerks his chin at the boxes of takeout on the table. “I don’t remember what’s in there, so just take anything that looks good.”

“You don’t remember it because you have a bad memory or because it’s really old?”

“Because my friend Madina ordered it?”

Redshift has to think for a second to remember if Ace knows Redshift knows someone named that. He doesn’t remember, so he’s about to either look completely normal or really forgetful. “Madina?”

“Yeah, she’s a friend of mine. She’s the one who knows everyone’s favorite order. I couldn’t tell you what we usually get if I had the menu in front of me.”

“Huh.” Redshift takes a box at random. Figuring out how to get the mask off his mouth while keeping it on his face is a challenge, but finally he just balances the takeout in his lap, holds the mask a little bit away from his face in one hand, and gets the food with the other.

Today he’d had a Q&A, which was like a press conference, but worse, since the whole point was for him to answer questions. Redshift had run through a mental list of possible candidates to complain to, which was limited by his civilian identity and also by the fact that most of the Vindicators have little to no sympathy, since Eli wouldn’t have given him work to do if he hadn’t patrolled and fucked things back up. Besides, he never knows where Isaiah is past a certain time, so that had just left Ace. And here he is.

“That’s weird,” Ace says.

“Huh? Is something wrong?”

“Is that really the best way to hold your mask?”

“Sadly, yes.”

“Wow.”

“I know.”

“If I were you I would definitely change that,” Ace says, going back to his food.

And okay, he really shouldn’t, but it would be a lot easier and Ace probably isn’t paying close enough attention to realize that his face looks familiar, so Redshift engages his super speed, shovels the food into his mouth, and puts the mask back on, all in less than a second.

“Holy shit, did you just finish that?”

“Yeah.”

“From now on, I live in awe of you.”

“Is that implying you didn’t already?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answers to.”

“I’ll take that as a solid ‘no, of course not.’”

“Ha. If it helps you sleep at night.”

 

“Yeah, it’s been okay,” Alex says. “I’ve mostly been hanging out with my non-Vindicator friends.”

Isaiah raises their eyebrows over their coffee cup. “That’s news to me. You’ve seemed too busy at HQ to have any time to spend with people you don’t see at work.”

“That’s true. I guess some of them are new friends.”

“Cool. How’d you meet them?”

“Through work friends.”

“Wow.”

“But we’ve been hanging out a lot. Like, I feel like if you can just walk into someone’s house and start complaining about your day and they don’t kick you out, that’s a pretty solid level of friendship.”

“Did you do that or did someone else do it to you?”

“I did it.”

Isaiah considers. “Yeah, I’d say that counts as a good friend. The only way it gets better is if they also give you food.”

“Wow, I’m just winning at all the social interactions.”

“I feel like if you want to win at social interactions, maybe you shouldn’t think of them as a competition.”

“But then I can’t win.”

“But you also can’t lose.”

Both of their phones buzz in unison. Isaiah’s is already lying on the table, and the all caps of the text message is enough to inform him they’ve just gotten a text from Eli, although he can’t read it upside down. 

Isaiah reads it and turns their phone around so Alex can too. “I hope it wasn’t you.”

 

**Eli:** which one of you fuckos ripped a door off the city hall

 

There’s a picture, as well. The hinges managed to hold on to one corner of the door, but everything else is gone. There’s some glass on the ground, but one of the double doors is completely fine, so once it gets cleaned up it’ll probably just look like the left door is perpetually open.

“Wasn’t me,” Alex says. “I don’t even have super strength.”

Isaiah shrugs as they compose a reply. “Could’ve run through and taken the door with you.”

“Fair point.”

The replies are coming in, and their phones are buzzing so much that Alex just takes his own phone out so both of them can read in real time.

 

**Isaiah:** not me, alex says not him either

**Kim:** obviously not me

**Samira:** ^

**Natia:** not me and tanis has been in a meeting for four hours

**Zipper:** i have not ripped any doors off recently

**Alex:** none of us have super strength idk why you think we did this

**Eli:** foolish optimism apparently

**Eli:** security cameras just got someone in what is basically a morph suit with a fancy mask i think

**Eli:** feed is b &w and pretty grainy but probably the blue people again if it’s none of you

**Eli:** come to mission control

 

“I’m glad I got this to go,” Isaiah says. 

“Not that you need it, you seem plenty awake to me.”

“That’s because I’ve already finished most of it.”

 

It’s a short trip to Mission Control, even without their powers, which is good because there aren’t any inconspicuous places to change into their suits. It’s short enough that, besides Eli, they’re the first ones there, which gives Isaiah a couple of minutes to finish their coffee as everyone else gets in.

The last person to arrive is Kim, who sits down and says, “We’ve been having a lot of meetings lately.”

“And I’m sure they’re the highlight of your day,” Eli replies. “Expect more. I think we have a real problem on our hands.”

“No shit,” Alex says.

“Shut up. Anyway, we need to actually come up with a plan to deal with these people before they do something bigger than stealing a door. So. Ideas?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what is this???? a chapter???? and it hasn't been a month????  
> (actually it might have been, idk when the last time i updated was lol rip me)  
> this is where the real supering begins.  
> hopefully i'll have the next chapter up before 2018, but i have finals in two weeks so there should not be a chapter before then.  
> <3 -birl


	10. Chapter 9: Ace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i updated???? wtf??????

Ace isn’t wearing a watch, but if he was he would be checking it all the time. As it is, he’s taken his phone out of his pocket to look at the time so often that he might as well just leave it on the counter.

“Ace, it’s been forty-five seconds since the last time you checked, are you sure you’re not waiting for a notification?”

“You know what I’m waiting for,” he says.

Kate frowns, although he can’t tell if it’s directed at him, her reading, or both. “Yeah, and you checking your phone all the time isn’t helping.”

Neither of them has their boss’s phone number, but Caesar has theirs. Ace knows better than to ignore blocked numbers by now. Usually, this is the way it goes— they get a text from a blocked number, they go in, they do some fighting, they come back and debrief and go home.

When his phone buzzes, just a couple seconds before he was going to check it again, he lunges for it, but it’s just another news update about that missing door.

“You would think he would have already contacted us,” Ace says. “He’s been waiting for something like this.”

“I know,” Kate says as she underlines a sentence and scribbles something in the margin. “Has anyone found the door?”

“No. And we can’t confirm that it was those people in blue, either, because the security feed is black and white, for some great reason, I’m sure.”

“Not much we can do about it.” She flips a page. “Let me know if something comes in. This is due tomorrow, so I’m gonna turn my phone off.”

“Okay.”

All the news alerts are pretty much the same stuff— someone ripped a door off the city hall, someone wearing a morph suit and a mask and a lot of weird-looking weapons, someone who sounds a lot like those blue people who’ve been taking out Vindicators (although that part isn’t in the news, since the Vindicators are doing their goddamned best to keep any injury news from getting published), and that’s all anyone knows. And Caesar still hasn’t contacted them to tell them to report in.

Ace is about to comment about how weird it is, since those doors are big enough that any super would struggle with them, especially with getting away that fast, but before the words get out of his mouth, his phone buzzes again.

 

**creepy neighbor:** don’t be surprised if there are cops around our floor

**creepy neighbor:** someone broke into my place

**creepy neighbor:** don’t think they took anything but i don’t want to take any chances

 

“It’s not him,” Ace says before Kate can ask. She nods and goes back to her anthology.

 

**Ace:** fun

**Ace:** haven’t got anything illegal in my apartment so w/e, but good to know

**creepy neighbor:** thought it might be

**creepy neighbor:** but they’ll probably be around for a while since it looks like whoever came in hopped balconies to get here

**Ace:** ok then i just won’t walk down the hall singing fuck the police and it’ll be all good

**creepy neighbor:** nice

**creepy neighbor:** i should go, i’m the only person who knows what’s supposed to be where

**Ace:** bye, good luck

 

“Someone broke into Alex’s place,” he tells Kate.

She doesn’t look up. “Did they take anything?”

He shrugs. “The longer it takes for them to figure out if anything is gone, the longer there’ll be people hanging around asking invasive questions to anybody who walks by.”

“Yes, you can hang out here.”

“You’re the best.”

“As long as you stop talking to me. I really need to get this done.”

“Fine.” This is pretty common. The appropriate response on Ace’s part is to walk the six feet from the breakfast nook to the couch and turn on the TV, which is exactly what he does.

“-- Tiffany’s here with more news about the string of break-ins that happened last night,” the anchor says. “Tiffany?”

Tiffany introduces herself from where she’s standing just so that the city hall and all the yellow tape around it are in view. “Immediately after news about these doors hit the media, the police department started getting calls about break-ins. There were sixteen at the last count, but I’m being told two more have just been reported. Oddly, none of these break-ins have turned into robberies— aside from breaking locks or forcing windows, these would-be burglars seem to have gone in and out without a trace.”

“So you’re saying nobody’s stolen anything?”

“Nothing has been confirmed missing, although the houses give the appearance of having been ransacked.”

“If these were all done by the same people, it sounds like they’re looking for something,” the anchor says.

Tiffany shrugs. “Another thing— all the people reporting the robberies so far seem to be young men who live alone.”  _ Like Alex, _ Ace fills in mentally. “So to any of our viewers who might fit that description, make sure your security system is up to date!”

“Thanks, Tiffany,” the anchor says. “We’ll be back after the break.”

An ad for home security starts playing, and Ace gets his phone back out.

It is  _ really _ weird that all these people happen to live alone and happen to be young and male. Unless someone’s been doing a lot of research before breaking in, it shouldn’t happen that way. But it is, so someone’s been doing their research, and that’s the weird part. Especially if they didn’t take anything.

It seems just weird enough to have made Caesar’s radar, so maybe something to do with that will be their next assignment.

 

**Ace:** looks like ur not special

**creepy neighbor:** ??

**creepy neighbor:** i’m very special

**Ace:** theres like almost 20 other ppl whose places got broken into

**creepy neighbor:** that explains why these cops are all holding coffee cups that have at least three shots of espresso

**creepy neighbor:** gtg, i have to talk to my boss

**Ace:** have fun

**creepy neighbor:** thanks, i won’t

 

Come to think of it, Ace should probably make sure his own locks work and stuff like that, and no sooner has that thought entered his brain than his phone buzzes again.

He expects it to be another one from Alex commenting on the espresso, but it’s from a blocked number.  _ Come now. _

Well.

“Kate, you done?” Ace says. “The boss wants us back.”

“Ugh,” Kate says, but she puts down her pen. “Give me one minute to go to the bathroom first.”

 

“So what did you learn from the news?” Dispatch asks as they make their way over the rooftops of LA.

“There were a ton of break-ins last night,” Crank replies. “If I’m right, the boss is going to tell us more when we get there.”

“If not, tell me later,” she says, because they’re getting close, and Dispatch prefers not to talk much when they’re with or near the boss— not that Crank can blame her. They’ve located and broken too many security cameras to not know how many good spots there are to put them near the office building that functions as their headquarters.

“Let’s just say I hope the boss tells us more,” Crank says, and then the doors are in sight.

There’s a courtyard that’s walled in on all sides, and that’s how they get in during the day, since their appearances are pretty noticeable. The blinds on all the windows are always pulled shut, and Crank is pretty sure that the lights are off in all the rooms, also. There’s a rope coiled under the eaves for easier descending, and he has no idea how they get the rope back up there, but they do.

He checks all the windows as he slides down the rope, more out of habit than anything, and they’re all still closed, blinds drawn and lights off. The patch of grass at the ground is looking thinner and thinner— more dirt peeks through every time they’re here. Actually, that’s one of the things Crank likes about the building, because it’s completely normal.

All the doors are automatic, even the ones that don’t slide— they have to stand outside of the door’s radius in case it’s one of the ones that opens outward.

The rope is long enough that the end piles on the ground, and Dispatch, like always, kicks the pile off to the side so nobody will trip over it. The door swings open (this one opens inward, although Crank could have sworn it opened outward last week), and they enter. It’s quicker to get to the boss’s office this way than when they go in through the side entrance, but neither of them is equipped with much of a safety net for hopping buildings, so Crank prefers the side, even if this way means they get in and out quicker.

There’s only one accessible door to the boss’s office, and it’s the one they always go through. They have to loop around instead of walking straight in, but the view is the same: closed doors, decorative hall lights, tan walls and scratchy gray carpet.

The door opens again, and this time, when they walk through, the boss is sitting halfway in the light.

Crank’s never seen him start a meeting that far forward before. Usually he sits in the shadows, and they just look in the direction of his voice. He kind of likes that better. He’s sure the mask is completely functional and all, but it looks kind of like a bunch of keyholes and that’s just a little weird.

“I’m changing your job descriptions,” is the first thing the boss says.

Crank and Dispatch wait.

“From now on, keep track of the people in blue and what they’re doing. Report back to me.”

“Are we still looking for Redshift?” Dispatch asks.

“I have people working on identifying him, now that he’s injured. That’s not your job anymore.”

“Is that why all the break-ins have been happening?” Crank asks.

The boss settles back in his chair. “Dismissed.”

_ That’s suspicious as fuck. _

 

Later, Ace tells Kate about how many break-ins there have been, and points out (probably without needing to) that it looks like that’s what the boss meant by identifying Redshift.

“That does seem connected,” she says with a frown. “But he would tell us about it if it was something he wanted us to know. If he puts us back on Redshift duty, I guess we’ll find out.”

She doesn’t seem concerned, so Ace moves on to the next thing he wanted to talk about.

“Did the boss seem kind of... happy to you?”

“Yeah. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for real tho like of all the things i was sure would not happen this week, updating was def one of them! i am legit so so busy with my show that i kinda couldn't believe i was done w this chapter?
> 
> anyway. here u go! windup is officially off hiatus, although when the next chapter will be up i still don't know but definitely not this week!
> 
> love, birl


	11. Chapter 10: Alex

When Kim texts him ‘yo ur friends are on tape’, Alex  _ almost _ replies ‘what friends?’ The only thing that stops him in time is remembering that Kim will undoubtedly know that he meant to ask who was on tape, but will instead tease him about his saying he doesn’t have any friends.

Instead, he says ‘who?’

 

**Kim:** ur weirdass criminal friends

**Kim:** caught em on tape looking around in the places where we found blue ppl

**Alex:** they’re not my friends

**Kim:** i bet ur like mutual top best friends on sc

**Alex:** ??? no

**Kim:** lies

**Kim:** anyway i actually texted to see if u know why they r doing that

**Alex:** no idea

**Kim:** ur not going to go ask them are u

**Alex:** ofc not

 

The rooftop is the last place he fought with Crank and Dispatch, so hopefully they’re at least kind of keeping eye on it. He doesn’t think he has to rent a billboard— somehow, they always find him, and this time is no exception.

“So are you just lonely at this point?” Crank calls from the top of the neighboring building as Dispatch jumps the gap.

“Why are you tracking down the blue people?” Redshift responds.

“Ouch, no hello?”

“You didn’t exactly say hello either.”

“Fair.”

If Redshift could see Dispatch’s eyes, he’s pretty sure they would be rolling right now. “So what do you actually want?”

“Why are you tracking down the blue people?”

“Why do you care?” she fires back.

“Let’s see. They appeared out of nowhere, heavily armed, and both of those also apply to you?”

She shrugs. “Makes sense, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna tell you anything.”

 

**Alex:** i still have no idea

**Kim:** ........u went and asked them didnt u

**Alex:** no

**Kim:** >.>

**Alex:** ok i did

**Alex:** but to be fair it wasn’t completely impossible that they would tell me

**Kim:** lol u thought

**Kim:** also they still sound like ur friends bro

**Alex:** stop

 

The Vindicators have analyzed the break-in to see what the threat level is, but as far as they can tell, the person just looked around and left. Alex doesn’t have security cameras inside his apartment, because why would he, so they couldn’t figure anything else out. Which is why Alex’s newest no-active-duty task is looking around to see if the person took anything. And it is a lot easier said than done, because if Alex said he knew where everything was in his apartment, he would be blatantly lying.

So, he looks. There’s a brief moment of excitement when he can’t find his spare charger, but it turns out to be under the bed, and that would be a pretty lame thing to take anyway. He even looks in the fridge. Turns out he’s almost out of strawberries, and when he goes to grab a pen to write it on the list (Alex always has a paper list because he likes crossing the stuff off), the drawer he opens has a piece of papery...  _ something _ that looks like the back of a photo on top.

So he grabs the pen, and then the paper thing too. He flips it over, and yup, it’s a picture— a pretty old one of Redshift and Blueshift, from way back when Blueshift had first joined.

That’s weird. Alex has pictures of Danny as Blueshift, but they’re all in his ultra-secure locker at Mission Control, along with most of the pictures of Redshift that he has. He keeps them there for exactly this reason— someone breaking in, seeing the photos, and putting together some twos.

Danny has the same picture— or he did. Alex doesn’t know if he kept it after the whole thing with Steel Coyote. So maybe it’s Danny’s picture that wound up over here somehow. Or maybe it is Alex’s, and it just never made it to the locker. He’s never claimed to be the most organized person alive.

Something about it still doesn’t feel quite right to Alex, so he tucks the picture in his gym bag. That way he’ll see it when he gets back to work. In the meantime, he’ll see if Danny knows where his copy went. But right now, he’ll put strawberries on the grocery list.

His phone buzzes from where he left it on the kitchen counter, so Alex abandons the grocery list to see which health food email list it is this time.

It’s none of them, surprisingly— instead, it’s a link Ace has just texted him to a news station’s website.

 

**Ace:** yo check out their livestream

**Ace:** not a rickroll

**Alex:** that just makes me more suspicious, you know that right

 

The link takes him right to the livestream, where a reporter is standing in front of an apartment building. “The LAPD is receiving more reports of robberies from the same people whose homes have already been entered. Again, nothing appears to have been taken, but we urge listeners to take care and make sure their homes are secure, since the LAPD will not share information about what these burglars might be looking for. We’ll return after a message from our sponsors.”

The screen cuts to an ad for home security, which is fitting enough that Alex wonders if they’re doing it on purpose, and then he replies to Ace.

 

**Alex:** yikes

 

He’s going to type more, but then a text from Eli pops up.

 

**Eli:** You are temporarily leaving your apartment

**Alex:** bc of the news thing?

**Eli:** Yeah

**Eli:** I know you hate the secure housing we have, so I will give you one hour to find someone willing to put up with you while we fix your apartment’s security

**Eli:** The timer has already started btw

**Eli:** Good luck

**Alex:** why do u do this to me

 

**Alex:** apparently a bunch of people have seen that same clip bc i’m now getting bombarded with advice to leave my apartment

**Ace:** ew

**Ace:** just crash on my sofa for a couple days until it blows over

**Ace:** that way u dont have to go very far if u forget ur hairgel or smth

**Alex:** my grandmother would have something to say about moving in with a stranger

**Alex:** but sure

**Alex:** i’m bringing my own pillow though, i don’t trust ur couch

**Ace:** thats a harsh thing to say about a couch you’ve never met

 

Uh.

 

**Alex:** i wouldn’t trust the couch of anybody under like 30

 

_ Good save, Alex. _

He doesn’t need to check the time— Eli probably already has a ‘time’s up’ text written and is just waiting to hit send. Since he hasn’t gotten that text, he must still be within the timeframe, and with that in mind, Alex switches conversations.

 

**Alex:** found someoneeeeee~

**Eli:** U don’t have to be smug

**Eli:** Just get out of ur place by six so we can start updating things

**Alex:** can u bring a vitamix

 

Eli doesn’t bother to reply to that, which is probably for the best.

Alex grabs his toothbrush, a change of clothes, his pillow, and some food (and hairgel), stuffs it all in a bag, and puts his shoes on. If he’s lucky, he’ll be back here tomorrow. If not, well, he can just go back and forth to get stuff.

He locks his door— the Vindicators will not find that a problem when they come by to update things— and takes the two-step journey to Ace’s door.

 

**Alex:** are u at home

**Ace:** ya, are u standing outside my door with an overnight bag

**Alex:** yes

**Ace:** 1 sec

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am trying desperately to study for APs instead of procrastinating the whole time by writing (which is what i did last year), so idk when the next chapter will be up, but hopefully soon!  
> love, birl


	12. Chapter 11: Ace

As Ace makes his way to his front door, it hits him that he’s just made it about 800% harder to do his patrols as Crank with someone else staying there. But it would look really weird if he backed out now, so he keeps going.

On the other hand, having Alex stay with him might keep him out of the whole searching-for-Redshift thing that’s happening. Ace doesn’t know what the boss’s ‘people’ are going to do, and besides, Redshift seemed fucked up enough when Ace first saw him injured that he’d be under Vindicator orders to sleep, et cetera, not routinely going to nighttime concerts in bars or sleeping on someone else’s couch or anything that Alex has been doing lately. (And Alex is way too functional of a human being to be Redshift. Ace has always gotten the impression that Redshift is a shifting hot mess.)

When Ace opens the door, he’s greeted with the sight of Alex. Or more accurately, Alex’s collarbone. He’s got an overnight bag and a bag of chips, and he’s stuffing his phone back in his pocket.

“‘Sup,” Ace says, moving aside so Alex can actually come in. “How was the trip over here?”

“There wasn’t any traffic, so, not bad,” Alex says dryly. He hadn’t bothered to put his running shoes on properly, just sticking his feet in and leaving the laces untied, so he kicks them off easily, and then carefully scoots them next to the wall so they’re not in anyone’s way. (Which is refreshing. The rest of Ace’s friends leave their shit everywhere. Sometimes he finds socks in the bathroom.)

“Thanks for letting me stay over,” Alex says.

“Eh, no problem,” Ace says. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

“...No?”

“Then you’re coming to our gig. Consider that your repayment.”

“Madina didn’t say anything about one.”

“Last minute, someone else cancelled and we’ve played there before. Didn’t get much chance to put flyers up and stuff.”

Alex shrugs. “Sure. I’m not doing anything, anyway.”

“Oh, but you are now. You’re being a groupie.”

“I’m doing my friends a favor.”

“Groupie.”

“If it helps you sleep at night. Where should I put this bag down?”

 

“Hey, Alex came again,” Kate says that evening. “That’s cool.”

“Danny couldn’t make it,” Elliot says, completely unprompted if you ask Ace, but then Elliot connects it to the conversation when he says, “Too short notice. Wonder how Alex managed it.”

“He wasn’t doing anything else and I made him,” Ace says, which gets him confused looks from Elliot and Kate. 

Madina hasn’t been paying attention, but she looks up from her shoes and says, “I mean, it’s gonna be weird without most of our friends here, but at least the managers here know we’re reliable enough that they called us. That’s pretty cool.”

“I’ll take it over sitting in front of my refrigerator for three hours deciding what to eat,” Elliot agrees.

“Is that really what you were doing?”

“Does it matter?”

“No, but I’m curious.”

“It’s what I was doing this morning.”

“What did you end up eating?”

“Toast.”

“As thrilling as that is, have either of you even started tuning?” Kate says, and that puts a stop to the conversation for a little while.

While they’re tuning, Ace wonders if it’s worth it to mention it to them that Alex is staying with him. He eventually decides it’s not— while he’s pretty sure Elliot would have an entertaining reaction, he would just get questions from Kate and Alex is gonna be back at his own place in like two days tops. So, no, not worth it unless something interesting happens.

 

The blue people are annoying.

Seriously. They’re fucking annoying. Hard to find, harder to keep up with, impossible to corner, not that Crank is even sure they’re supposed to be trying to corner them. Doesn’t make much difference, because they’re getting nowhere.

Add that to the fact that Redshift isn’t out and about drawing attention to himself, and Crank is not happy about his latest reassignment.

Dispatch isn’t either, and she says as much, frequently— it’s a couple days until their next meeting with the boss, so they still have some time to try and find something useful, but they’ve had like half a week, and nada.

Crank can’t even keep an eye on the Redshift search to feel productive, because he still doesn’t know who’s doing the Redshift search, how they’re doing it, or anything else. Hell, they could have even found the guy already and the boss just isn’t telling Crank and Dispatch. That would explain why he hasn’t been out and about. All Crank knows is that suddenly there are ads for home security systems everywhere. He’s getting them every time he opens up a webpage, and he has definitely not bothered to try to protect himself against the Redshift search. So some algorithm has decided he fits the profile.

Maybe he should upgrade his security, just to make marketing teams feel valued.

But home security is cropping up in more places than Crank would like, because at the moment, he and Dispatch are lying on a rooftop close enough to the edge to see the apartment building next door, because there are two of the blue people on the balcony outside Alex’s apartment. They’re talking to each other, quietly enough that all Crank knows is that they’re talking, but they’ve been there for a few minutes. It looks like they’re trying to get in, because they’re peering inside, and one of them tried to do something to a lock, but nothing happened. So now they’re talking.

They must be making some sort of noise, because Crank sees the light in his own apartment flick on, which means they’ve woken Alex up. Either that, or he was just in a different room. Crank hopes he doesn’t go looking for Ace.

When the light flicks on, the blue people wrap up their conversation and leap off the building, but they’re going in the other direction, which means Crank and Dispatch have to get up and hurry after them if they don’t want to lose track like they have before.

The light in Ace’s apartment is still on when it leaves Crank’s line of sight.

 

They track the blue people to a different apartment. Still one with a balcony, still one right next to another building of a similar height where Crank and Dispatch can hang out, but this time, when one of the blue people tries something on a lock, the window-door-thing that opens out onto the balcony swings open. Both of the blue people go into the apartment, which is a stupid move on their part, since it leaves nobody to keep watch for people like Crank and Dispatch.

“We need to get some binoculars,” Dispatch murmurs once both of the blue people have gone inside.

“That does seem like a good idea,” Crank agrees in a whisper. “Should we get closer?” There is, after all, a balcony that neither of the blue people are using.

Dispatch considers it. “First sign of them coming back out, we book it back up here, no exceptions.”

“Deal.”

The jump from building to building isn’t that hard— the hard part is getting down to the balcony, which is one story below the top floor. It would be a lot easier if they could dig handholds out of the wall, but that seems like the sort of thing someone would notice. (The blue people didn’t have that problem— they came up from the ground and used grappling hooks to get to the balcony.) Fortunately, this particular building has a railing around the top, probably to keep anyone who wanders their way up here from falling off.

Dispatch’s rope isn’t long enough to get them down to the right floor, so they have to content themselves with getting to a balcony the floor above. They  _ could _ just take the rope with them and go down another story, except Dispatch is right that they need to be able to get out of there ASAP.

They strain their ears listening— both for sounds coming from the apartment below and from the one whose balcony they’re currently borrowing, but it turns out that when the sound does come, it’s much louder than they expected. Police sirens blare as Crank hears running feet below them, and Dispatch is already halfway up the ladder by the time he realizes that the blue people are going to come out of their apartment onto the balcony and probably see him immediately if he doesn’t move.

He grabs the rope as well, and when Dispatch gets to the top she starts pulling him up too, making it a little like climbing an escalator. 

When he gets to the top, he starts looking around to see where the blue people are, but Dispatch says, “They already left.”

“Already?”

“Yeah. Grappling hook onto the next building. We’re lucky they didn’t look behind them.” She finishes coiling her rope. “But you know what’s weird? They weren’t holding anything.”

“So not a robbery, then?”

“If it was, it was a bad one.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That it wasn’t a robbery?

“And that’s ominous.”

“Yeah. Come on, we should see if we can find them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Is A Regular Update Schedule
> 
> it's summer for me now so hopefully once i get back from my trip i can update more frequently! :)
> 
> love, birl


	13. Chapter 12: Alex

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: windup is still not officially off hiatus. i'm trying to write as many chapters as i can while i have some free time, because that's gonna vanish when school starts. but i've got a few done, and it's been over a month since my last update, so i figured i'd update so y'all don't have to wait forever :)

**Danny:** no i still have mine

**Danny:** it’s in my closet

**Danny:** why?

**Alex:** huh

**Alex:** i thought i put mine with the others at mc

**Alex:** but it was in my kitchen

**Danny:** huh

**Danny:** i mean are you worried?

**Alex:** i shouldn’t be

**Alex:** but i’m gonna check mc just in case

**Danny:** ok

 

Ace had left around nine, citing band practice, which works perfectly well for Alex since he wants to talk to the people invading his apartment at ten. Again, since they hadn’t done everything the first time, apparently. Ace had insisted he sleep before they left for the concert (so he wouldn’t miss the end), so he’d missed them yesterday, but as luck would have it, they’re coming back today.

Eli and a crack team of what looks like interns enter the hallway at nine fifty-nine, and Eli looks pretty surprised to see Alex chilling in between his front door and Ace’s. 

“I thought you said you found somewhere to go?”

“Yeah. Next door.” Alex doesn’t give Eli a chance to respond to that since he will definitely find something wrong with it. “Anyway, while you’re ransacking my place, can you keep an eye out for pictures?”

“What kind?”

“Vindicators. Current and former.”

Eli nods, opening the door. Alex is probably going to get interrogated once the interns are no longer in hearing range. “Where do we put stuff we find?”

“If you could take them back to Mission Control with you and double-check them against what I have on file, that would be great. As far as I know, I don’t have any duplicates, but I just found one in the kitchen.”

“Mm. That’s weird.”

“Yup. Actually, can you take the duplicate I found as well? It’s in my gym bag.”

“Nothing on earth could induce me to go into your gym bag. And the interns aren’t paid enough for that, either. So it’s gonna have to be you since it’s your shit, come on.” He walks into Alex’s apartment without waiting for that to be acknowledged.

It’s a fair point, and it’s not like Alex has anything better to do, so he goes inside.

 

**Alex:** eli thinks it’s weird too

**Ace:** eli thinks whats weird too

**Ace:** whos eli

**Alex:** sorry that was for danny

 

**Alex:** eli thinks it’s weird too

**Danny:** that’s not good

**Alex:** yeahhhhhhhh

**Alex:** make sure u know where all of ur pictures and stuff are

**Alex:** just in case

**Danny:** will do, thanks for the warning

 

Eli seems to have located the gym bag, which he deposits in front of Alex.

 

**Ace:** u didnt answer me whos eli

**Alex:** my boss

**Ace:** oh thats boring

**Alex:** what were u expecting?

**Ace:** idk something dramatique

 

“The duplicate,” Eli prompts.

“Right. Yeah.” Alex opens the bag (really, it’s not bad, it’s not like he doesn’t wash his shit), takes out the picture, and hands it to him. “There you go.”

“It looks like a normal picture.”

“Uh... yeah? What were you expecting?”

“I mean, if you’re going to use a picture as a threat, you’re going to have to change something to make it threatening. This is just a picture. I mean, is it a weird picture for Alex Becket, ordinary citizen, to have? Yes. So if it turns out that this really is yours and you just never put it somewhere safe, prepare yourself for a lecture. But otherwise... it’s just a picture. If they— if  _ someone _ is trying to threaten you, they’re doing a pretty piss-poor job at it.”

“We haven’t even figured out if the robberies are aimed at me, let’s not start thinking about threats.”

“That’s my job. You go do whatever you want to do, as long as it involves planting your butt in that other apartment.”

“I feel restricted.”

“You are. But, you know, you’re always welcome to move to our secure housing.”

“Never mind.” The Vindicators’ secure housing is in approximately Bumfuck, Nowhere, and it’s completely off the grid. It was created for anybody whose identity gets leaked to supervillains, which means its defenses are off-the-charts ridiculous, it’s impossible to get out of, and it’s also one thousand percent boring. (To be honest, Alex isn’t sure why it’s so boring, but he assumes it’s to fill the person with so much rage that if supervillains  _ do _ find them, it’ll be a piece of cake to get rid of them.)

“You  _ can _ leave the apartment, it’s not like you have to stay in there all the time.”

“Really? Because that’s what it sounded like a second ago.”

“You need to plant your butt in that other apartment for the rest of the evening until you know when your buddy is getting back. Can’t have you dropping your stuff off and immediately coming back. Your roommate would wonder what the point was.”

He’s hung out in Ace’s place alone plenty of times as Redshift, but it feels different as Alex. If Redshift is weird and awkward, Ace can assume it’s just because that’s who Redshift is as a person. But if Alex is weird and awkward, then it’s... weirder.

And he can’t even watch TV because Redshift, not Alex, knows how Ace’s TV works.

Ugh.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go back,” Alex says. “Let me know if you need me to explore any other gym bags.”

“It’s  _ your _ gym bag.”

He shrugs and leaves his apartment. He’d double-checked a million times that he had unlocked the door to Ace’s, but he still lets out a quiet sigh of relief when the door opens. He could have just shifted inside, but honestly, it would be  _ really _ humiliating if he made his injury-slash-whatever-is-going-on-with-him even worse because he had locked himself out.

The first thing he needs to do, now that Ace isn’t here, is triple-check that all of the first aid stuff is in the same place. Last time he was here as Redshift, he found a lot of bandages, a lot of painkillers, and a lot of cough drops. Plus some hydrocortisone and other generic stuff, but if Alex does wind up getting seriously injured (which he’d better not, but it’s good to consider the worst), he’ll have to grab some stuff from his own apartment. And explain to Ace why he has it.

That sounds like a problem for another day.

He goes to look at the first aid stuff anyway. It’s in the bathroom, under the sink with extra soap and toilet paper and stuff like that. The reason it’s under the sink is because the box is so big that it can’t fit behind the mirror, where Alex had found some generic Band-Aids, leftover hair dye, and some sample size hair and skin products last time he looked. 

(So he went through Ace’s entire bathroom when he was here as Redshift and Ace wasn’t home. It’s not like he took anything. Or went through Ace’s bedroom.)

The Band-Aids are still there, and the hair dye and samples have moved around and changed quantities but they’re also still there, and the first aid kit is still admirably well stocked, which makes Alex think that either Ace is just obsessively prepared or he buys more stuff  _ very _ frequently.

Awesome.

He hangs out on the couch for about five minutes before deciding that Ace’s TV doesn’t look  _ that _ complicated, so he can just pretend to have figured out how it works. 

 

He knows something is wrong when Eli texts him a picture. (Eli doesn’t text pictures if he can help it— he claims it’s so he doesn’t fill up storage on his phone with screenshots he could get easily from his computer. Kim has informed Alex that it’s because Eli hardly has any storage on his phone in the first place because it’s all full of dog pictures. Which is justifiable.)

The picture is of a table somewhere, probably at Mission Control, and on the table, there are three identical photos, all of Redshift and Blueshift. 

 

**Eli:** we found another one inside your pillowcase. the third one is from the safe at hq. danny has proved via photo that he still has his.

**Eli:** stay out of your apartment for a while. offer to pay rent or something if it keeps you where you are right now, we can comp it for you. but you’re not going back until this is over

**Eli:** can you find someone to keep jet for a while or do we need to figure something out?

**Alex:** depends how easily we can figure something out

**Eli:** very easily

**Alex:** then no i cannot find someone

**Eli:** normally i would call you out for that and i hope the fact that i’m not is impressing on you how much you need to not fuck off on your own for a while

**Alex:** im hurt u think i would ever do that

**Eli:** alexander

**Alex:** yes i get it

**Eli:** good

**Eli:** don’t do anything i wouldn’t do

**Alex:** i will strive not to

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, i'm currently working on chapter 17, but like i said, i'm going to get busy as fUCK and i would hate to just vanish for months, so i'm writing as much as i can now and i'm going to space those chapters out so hopefully they'll cover all the time that i'll be too busy to write fast. and then y'all get semi-regular updates, too!
> 
> hope you enjoyed!
> 
> love, birl


	14. Chapter 13: Ace

Madina and Elliot are arguing about chord suspensions, which gives Ace and Kate the perfect opportunity to have a whispered conversation on the other side of the room. 

“The weird blue people break-ins,” Kate mutters. “Aren’t they like the ones that the news stations keep talking about?”

“I thought so too,” Ace replies quietly. (Not that he really needs to— Elliot has just uttered the words ‘D-7’ and Madina looks like the earth is crashing down around her ears.) “They’re not stealing anything. But they also—”

“Keep fighting with the Vindicators.”

“Yeah. Especially Redshift.”

Kate looks over her shoulder to make sure Elliot and Madina are still arguing (Madina has picked up the super-old chart of chord tablature that used to live in Ace’s room, but now lives in their rehearsal space, to point at something vigorously), and then says, “I was thinking... maybe they’re looking for him?”

“The boss said he had people on that.”

“Maybe they’re the same people.”

“Why would we be following them if they’re also working for him?”

“I don’t know. But there are too many coincidences. You know?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately.” Ace sighs. “I wonder if I should tell Alex that the break-ins are people looking for Redshift.”

Kate looks at him the way Madina looked at Elliot when he suggested a D-7 suspension. “Uh... no? Ace, the fuck? You know that should never happen.”

“Fuck. Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know why that even popped into my head.”

Across the room, Elliot says, “Madina, how much did you sleep?”

“Like two hours? Does it matter?”

“Fuck yeah, it does, you are  _ way _ too mad about this chord progression. We literally use all of these in the bridge in a different order. Why does it—”

“The bridge is supposed to be  _ different, _ though. Can we at least modulate? And then we’ll have to change something in the bridge to make that a better transition but that’s a win-win because things are different. Like I said.”

“That depends on Ace, but if we move the section before the bridge down a half step, yeah.”

“Let’s do that.” She’s erasing and rewriting stuff on her sheet music before she’s even done saying it, but at least they’ve agreed on something.

When she’s done, Elliot says, “Go sleep.”

“But we’re not done here. We still have to figure out the bridge.”

“We’ll figure it out once you’re awake.”

Madina squints at him. “How are  _ you _ even awake? You were still up when I went to bed, I saw you liked my Instagram posts from six weeks ago at three in the morning.”

“I crashed for like five hours in the middle of the day yesterday.”

“Hm. I should try that some time.”

“Why didn’t you go to bed at, like, a reasonable time?” Ace asks.

Both of them look up at exactly the same time.

“My job?” Madina says at the same time that Elliot says, “I slept in the middle of the day, like I said.”

“Damn. You work with Alex, right?” When Madina nods, Ace continues, “Your boss must be an asshole.”

“Trust me, he’s working just as much as I am,” Madina says. “There’s a ton of stuff going  _ really _ badly right now. Everyone’s kind of dying.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah. But anyway, did you hear what we were saying? We’re moving the beginning down a half step so the bridge modulates up.”

“Sounds good. Go sleep. We can manage figuring out one modulation on our own.”

“But—” Madina looks at Kate for confirmation that she should stay up, but Kate shakes her head. “Fine. See you tomorrow.”

Elliot already has some ideas for changing the bridge, and they all sound fine to Ace, so they change the sheet music and end rehearsal early. There’s not a whole lot they can do with Madina asleep, and no matter what Elliot says, he’s starting to look a little dead around the eyes too. 

Once Elliot is gone, Kate turns to Ace and says, “I have an idea.”

 

“This idea is like, the same as literally every other time we’ve done this,” Crank complains from the top of Szerpinov Company corporate headquarters’ office building. 

“But we’ve always been looking at where people live,” Dispatch counters from where she’s laying flat on the roof to look over the edge. “What if they’re after something else?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, but it would mean they weren’t looking for Redshift and we wouldn’t have to get all weirded out by all the coincidences?”

“That’s fair, but still. You definitely said ‘I have an idea’ like it was a  _ new _ idea. This is just the same thing on a different building.”

“Whatever. Just be quiet so I can focus.”

Crank is about to say something sarcastic when one hand grabs the back of his neck and the other claps over his mouth. He makes a muffled squeaking noise that isn’t his most dignified, but it gets Dispatch’s attention, who starts to say “What did I just—” before stopping, rolling into a less vulnerable position, and saying, “Captain Stardust.”

“Hello,” Stardust says. “Get off this roof.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so, and I’m sure you don’t want to get into a fight with me.”

“So you just patrol the tops of office buildings in your free time?” Dispatch asks.

“Who said this was free time?” Stardust releases Crank’s mouth, but keeps the back of his neck in a firm grip. “It doesn’t matter. Please go before things get complicated.”

“Fine,” Crank says before Dispatch can say anything else. He stands up when Stardust releases the back of his neck and briefly enjoys the height difference that creates between the two of them, but then Dispatch stands up as well and they need to get going before Stardust changes her mind.

Once they’re a few buildings away, Dispatch says, “That was weird.”

“That was super weird,” Crank agrees. “We should definitely keep a tighter watch on that building.”

“Should we tell the boss?”

“I mean, we probably shouldn’t tell him that the reason we were up there is because we thought he was lying to us, but... yeah, I think we should.”

“We can just say we were up there because a lot of the blue people hang out there. I mean, that’s what he told us to do.”

“Yeah. I’m gonna go home and try to turn off the conspiracy theories for tonight. See you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

He’s about to leave, but before he does, Dispatch says, “Crank, wait a second.”

He turns around silently, because usually that means Dispatch sees something weird and she wants his opinion on it.

“What was that about, earlier today?”

“What was what about?”

“You know. When we were talking about the search for Redshift and you mentioned wanting to tell... someone.”

“He’s my friend,” Crank says. “What about it?”

“I just wanted to remind you. Because, you know, technically, we’re criminals. And I know you’re friends, but that doesn’t mean you can trust him with all of  _ this.” _ She waves her hand in Crank’s general direction. “And if you tell him about Redshift, he’s going to want to know how you know. Even if he doesn’t ask out loud.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Do you?”

“Look, Dispatch. What is this about? I already said I wouldn’t do it. So I don’t know why we’re having this conversation.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Dispatch says. “Even if he’s super hot,” she adds lightly, which means the serious part is over. Thank god.

“You underestimate me. I can thirst from a distance.”

“Can you?”

Crank considers the fact that Alex is currently living with him for an undetermined amount of time, and then considers how to backtrack without making Dispatch right. “Eh, I’m doing pretty well so far.”

“Good enough. Also, you totally just admitted you’re into him.”

Well. That’s an unexpected twist of the conversation, which is probably exactly why Dispatch said it that way. 

So what can he do about it?

There’s no going back. She has him cornered, and she knows it. Either he admits that yes, he’s actually hella into his weird (and weirdly attractive) neighbor who makes food at weird times and insulted his shitty couch, or he has to backtrack and erase, like, a solid minute of conversation, which is impossible. 

Well, there’s only one choice, looking at it that way.

He tries his best to shrug nonchalantly. “I thought that was obvious when I said he was hot the first time he came to watch us play.”

“You also said he wasn’t your type, you liar.” Crank can hear her grin behind her mask.

Ugh, he can’t respond to that with a nonchalant shrug. Time for plan B: completely owning it and bribing her with anything he can to keep her from mentioning it to literally anybody else. “Okay, okay, fine. He isn’t. But I’m willing to overlook that.”

“You’re  _ soooooo _ into him.”

“I mean, I guess. But on the other hand, how could I  _ not.” _

“Speaking as a lesbian...”

“True.”

“So what now?” she asks.

“I’m gonna need some context to answer that question.”

“Sorry. I forget you’re not magically reading my mind sometimes. What I was gonna say what, what about Stardust? Why was she there?”

“I don’t know. But I think we should find out.”

“I think so too. I’ll see you tomorrow, then? It’s getting late.”

“Yeah, see you. And if you tell anyone about what we just talked about, I’ll make sure you can’t find any cereal in your house for a month.”

“Now, Crank, I thought we just established that  _ you’re _ the one who’s having some difficulty with keeping secrets. Have a good night.”

“No we didn’t, and you too.”

They leave in separate directions. Crank plans on taking the long way back— it’ll take him a while to make sure none of his conversation with Dispatch shows on his face when he walks in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it is sO WILD to me that i have like, ten more chapters that i haven't posted. i'm never this prepared and committed to an update schedule LMAO
> 
> anyway. since i've finished chapter 22, i'm changing the update schedule from every 4 weeks to every 3, and it should hopefully still cover all the time that i'm super busy! (which is like, the rest of 2018 starting in september) ideally i'd like to get it down to every two weeks, but i have no idea if that will ever happen. so, we're starting with 3 and if i change the update schedule i'll let you know!
> 
> thanks for reading, kudosing, and commenting <3  
> love, birl


	15. Chapter 14: Alex

The good thing about Eli telling Alex to not do anything Eli wouldn’t do is that usually, their clashes come from the fact that Alex is not doing things that Eli  _ would _ do. (Like following protocol, for instance.)

He fully intends to not do anything Eli wouldn’t do, just so he can win any future arguments about it, but that still leaves him with a lot of things he can do. Going on patrol isn’t one of them, because Eli never does that, but he can leave the apartment. And if he happens to wander around at street level for a while checking out locations that have turned up a lot on Madina’s map of trouble spots, well, who knows if Eli would do that or not? Alex is going to argue benefit of the doubt on that one.

The first spot is outside a tall building that houses the corporate office of a chain of bakeries. Nobody at Mission Control has any idea why the blue people hang out here, but the bakeries are pretty good, so maybe they’re hoping that they can get some freebies if they stand outside long enough.

He sets his sights on the department store just past the bakery office building and walks past, keeping an eye on the office in his peripheral vision. He almost stops walking when there’s a flash of blue somewhere on his left, but it turns out to be someone’s T-shirt.

Then he’s right next to the department store and he has to go in to make sure that anybody who might have been watching him doesn’t get suspicious about why he walked by so deliberately, but it’s fine because he can just walk around the aisles for a few minutes, pretend they don’t have what he was looking for, and walk back out again.

Alex aims for a random section, since it doesn’t really matter where he goes, but... maybe he should not do that in the future.

“Hi, Alex!” Tanis’s voice says from behind him.

“Oh, hey, Tanis. What’s up?”

She nods at the shelves he’s standing in front of. “We’re out of tissues. I’ve been sent on an emergency grocery run while Natia figures out what to do for dinner. What about you?”

“Uh, yeah, same. Tissues.” Alex grabs two boxes at random.

Tanis’s brow furrows. “But Eli just told me you’re staying with someone right now. Did they send you to buy tissues?”

“Yes,” Alex says as firmly as he can without being pushy.

She shrugs. “Well, if they know you’re staying for a while, that doesn’t surprise me. I’d definitely ask someone who was staying with me to pick up groceries and stuff if they’re not paying rent.”

“Yeah. I’m kind of moving in with him, so it makes sense for me to buy stuff. At least until we figure something else out.”  _ Okay. Now, how to get out of this conversation, preferably without buying tissues? _

That doesn’t have the conversation-ending effect Alex was hoping for, though.

“Moving in with him? Are you dating him?”

“Uh...” As much as Alex wants to tell her the truth, then he would probably also have to explain how he knows Ace and is willing to live with him, which is already a super weird story that he’s been keeping to himself because of its weirdness and how much Eli would kill him if he found out that Alex’s shifting was so off that he’d wound up in a stranger’s house often enough to make friends with him. And Tanis would tell Eli, because she’s not stupid and knows that’s a big problem, so he can’t tell her about that, but he also doesn’t have a lie prepared for this situation, so... what the fuck does he do now?

Well, Tanis doesn’t know who he moved in with. Eli doesn’t even know who he moved in with, so there’s no risk of Tanis finding out. Actually, the only person who knows who he moved in with, besides Alex himself, is Ace, and there’s really no risk of Ace and Tanis ever interacting, just Tanis and Elliot or Madina, who would both definitely tell Ace, but he can probably get away with it if...

“Yeah,” Alex says. “It’s been a while, so we decided it was time. But we’re kind of trying to keep it under the radar because he’s not out yet, so if you could avoid mentioning it to other people, that would be great.”

“Oh, of course, I understand.” She smiles at him, and he smiles back. “Thanks for telling me, Alex. I should get back before Natia makes balsamic glaze again, though.”

“Is it bad?”

“No, but it sticks to everything and makes it impossible to get stuff off the plate.” Tanis takes a few boxes of tissues and steps out of the aisle. “See you later.”

“Bye.” As soon as she’s out of his sight, he puts the tissues he’s holding back on the shelf and goes to the grocery section. He doesn’t need to get anything, but Tanis was right that he should buy  _ something _ since Ace is letting him stay, so he’ll just get some chips and cookies and stick them in Ace’s kitchen cupboard when he gets back.

Whoever organized the store put all the unhealthy snack foods in the same aisle, which makes Alex’s life easy because it means he only has to walk about three feet to get a box of mint chocolate chip cookies, because he remembers Ace having them at one point, and a bag of sea salt potato chips because he’s never met anyone who hates them, so they’re a pretty safe bet.

He pays the ten cents for a bag, takes his stuff, and goes back the same way he came, past the bakery office building. The plan had been to hit a couple more locations before going back, but now he’s got groceries, so he’ll just go back, deposit the stuff, and leave again, as long as Ace isn’t back already.

Once he passes the building again and doesn’t see any blue, he texts Madina,  _ the szerpinov co location doesn’t have any blue ppl rn. _

Her reply comes back almost immediately:  _ thought u were planting ur butt in ur new location? _

_ i was buying groceries and i walked by on the way there, _ Alex replies.  _ u can ask tanis, i saw her at the store _

There’s a short pause, when Madina is presumably texting Tanis, and then she replies  _ kk ty. _

Nailed it.

 

**Eli:** i hope i don’t have to emphasize to you that these pictures are a threat.

**Alex:** seems like u just did my dude

**Eli:** i’m hoping you already knew that and thus my text was unnecessary.

**Eli:** that being said you do need to come in tomorrow so someone will pick you up from your neighbor’s apartment

**Eli:** and if you complain i’m sending you to live in a nuclear bunker

**Eli:** bad enough you’re living right next door to your own place

 

Alex almost texts Ace that he told Tanis they were dating, and then he deletes it. And then he almost does it again, and then he deletes it.

Because the fact of the matter is that mentioning Tanis will raise a lot of questions he doesn’t want to answer, like ‘why does your coworker care who you’re living with’ and ‘how does your coworker even know you’re not at home right now’. 

So he’s not going to mention it. It’s the smart thing to do. This way, Ace doesn’t suspect anything weird, Tanis assumes they’re just  _ deeply _ closeted (if she ever even meets Ace), and Alex gets away with that lie. And he never brings it up again and if Tanis asks him he says they broke up and if she asks why they’re still living together (not that Alex thinks they’ll be in this situation for long), he’ll say they’re still friends and splitting rent is more important than moving out from your ex’s place.

When he gets back to said ‘ex’s place’, the lights are already on. Alex is suddenly grateful that he ran into Tanis at the grocery store, because otherwise he wouldn’t have the chips and cookies and it would be a lot harder to explain where he was or what he was doing.

He still doesn’t have a key (not that there’s any reason for him to have one, he hasn’t been there for very long), so he knocks, and Ace opens the door a few moments later.

“ _ Dude,” _ he says when he sees what Alex is holding. “I need you to tell me that you got those for both of us because if you didn’t, I’m going to eat them anyway. I’d just prefer to not feel bad about it.”

_ Success. _

“Yeah, since you’re letting me stay here for a while, I got something. I kind of guessed?” (He only guessed on the chips, but he knows about the chocolate chip cookies from being here as Redshift, so as far as Ace is concerned, Alex guessed on both of them.)

“Good guesses.” Ace steps back to let Alex get through the door. “Come on, I want to watch shitty TV and eat food. You in?”

This all feels vaguely familiar. “Sure.”

“Awesome. I think this is the start of a wonderful cohabitation. As long as you keep buying snacks.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alex is a disaster but you never realize how MUCH of a disaster someone is until you watch them make up a completely unnecessary lie that is just going to make their life way harder in the future but is convenient in the moment
> 
> in case u haven't seen the updates on my tumblr, windup now updates every 2 weeks! currently i'm working on chapter 29 which will be posted... sometime in march? (once i finish chapter 30 i will have covered pretty much all the high-stress periods of my school year, except AP exams.) so there's a lot more of windup to go! i'm excited :) i hope you are too!
> 
> thanks for reading, kudosing, and commenting!  
> love, birl


	16. Chapter 15: Ace

“I literally cannot believe Alex is staying with you,” Kate says. “Did he say why?”

“He said basically everyone he knew was telling him to get out of there but he didn’t want to actually move. I figured it’ll help me look like a perfectly average person as well.”

“In the sense that you totally would fit the profile, except you’re not living alone anymore?”

“Yeah. Well, temporarily, at least.”

“Temporarily is better than nothing.”

 

It’s the next night when it happens.

Crank is the one behind the suggestion of going back to Szerpinov Co. Not necessarily on the roof, because Captain Stardust will probably be on high alert, but somewhere nearby, so they can see what’s happening, look for blue people, and make note of any other Vindicators they see hanging around.

He feels kind of ridiculous changing into his Crank gear just to sit on a roof, but it’s the best spot to see from and two civilians would have a lot more explaining to do if they got caught on the roof than two supers. (Besides, all his climbing stuff is with all his Crank stuff, so he would have had to bring it anyway.)

The first hour is ridiculously boring. There is a blue person hanging around in an alley beside Szerpinov Co., but they’re not doing anything, just sitting leaning against the wall and staring into space. At one point, they get up, and the alley is empty for a few minutes before another blue person comes in. Not the same one, though— this one is significantly taller.

“Are they rotating?” he asks Dispatch, who’s watching that alley. He’s keeping his eyes on the roof, which is empty.

“They’re doing a pretty shit job of it if they are. We totally could have gotten through there without them knowing, with that long of a gap between people.”

“Why would we do that?”

“Dunno. Just pointing out the possibilities.”

They trade spots to watch, and Crank settles in for another hour of watching this blue person do nothing.

Which is why he really can’t be blamed when Redshift emerges from the shadows on the other side of the alley and he almost drops his binoculars.

_ “Dispatch,” _ he hisses.

“Who is it?” she says, not taking her eyes off the roof. Meanwhile, Redshift shifts to the other side of the blue person and plants a foot on their chest, effectively pinning them to their sitting position against the wall. Nothing else is happening, which makes Crank think they’re talking.

“Redshift.”

“Is he back?”

“It’s either him or a really tall person in the outfit.”

The blue person must have said something Redshift doesn’t like, because he leans in and gets in the blue person’s face. Not for the first time, Crank wishes he could hear thar far.

“What are they doing?”

“Talking. Not in a friendly way.”

“Talking with their mouths or their fists?”

“Mouths. So far.”

Those turn out to be the magic words, because in the blink of an eye, the blue person whips something out from Crank-doesn’t-even-want-to-know-where, presses it against Redshift’s leg, then stands up and watches as their movement makes Redshift topple backwards.

He doesn’t do anything to stop it.

The blue person disappears, and Redshift sits up almost immediately, but he doesn’t try to stand up. He tries moving his legs, which works, but when he scoots over to the alley wall and leans on it as he tries to stand up, his legs buckle and he winds up sitting again.

“That’s not good,” Crank says, probably louder than he meant to say it.

“What’s not?”

“Redshift’s legs aren’t working. Look.” 

She changes the position of her binoculars and frowns. “I mean, they look fully mobile.”

“Yeah, but he can’t stand up. They just collapse.”

“Yikes. But at least it means he can’t chase us.”

“I guess. Aw, fuck.”

“What?”

“We should’ve gotten closer while the fight was still happening. There’s no way we can find the blue person now.”

Across the street, Redshift is testing his legs, one at a time, stretching them out and trying to tuck them under himself, probably so he can stand up.

“But we know they hang out here,” Dispatch says. “We’ll just come back tomorrow night.”

“We have a gig.”

“Oh. Uh, not tomorrow night, then.”

“Chill.”

“I still haven’t seen anyone on the roof.”

“Maybe Redshift is the one on patrol tonight, except his legs aren’t working?”

“Still, you have to admit it’s odd nobody else is there now. I mean, he got in a fight and lost, and he’s having trouble getting out of there. If it were me I totally would have called someone else to come in by now. It’s not like he’s going to get any more patrolling done tonight.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want them to know he lost.”

Dispatch is silent for a while, long enough that Crank takes his eyes away from his binoculars to look at her. She’s jammed her face up so close to her binoculars that if not for her mask, she would probably already have marks on her face.

“What’s going on?”

“I can’t tell if this thing is a person or just a weirdly shaped roof edge. Switch viewpoints with me, I’ll keep an eye on Redshift and you tell me what you think.”

They count to three and swap (given how fast Redshift moves, it’s habit to not leave a spot unwatched, although he probably can’t get very far now). 

“It’s a weird—” Crank starts, but then Dispatch lets out a short string of swearing and says, “Look at the alley.”

“But—”

“Look at it.”

He looks.

Redshift is gone. In his place, there’s a piece of cardboard with ‘Nice Try’ written on it, big enough that Crank can read it through his binoculars, and facing their roof pretty much exactly.

“They know where we are,” Crank says.

“We need to go.”

They pack up as quickly as they can— the fancy-ass binoculars have their own special cases that’ll protect them in case Crank and Dispatch crash through some walls, which is great, but it also means they take forever to put away.

It doesn’t help that Crank feels compelled to keep checking on the alley, where the cardboard is still standing. He can’t see it well enough to make out the words, but he can tell that every so often, a pedestrian stops in confusion and takes a closer look. There’s no sign of Redshift, and maybe more importantly, no sign of how he got out of there so quickly, when last Crank checked, he was barely able to stand up.

Unless he was faking it?

If he knew where Crank and Dispatch had been watching from, anything is possible.

So maybe he faked the whole legs-not-working thing to get Crank to stop watching him for long enough to shift out of there. But then what was the point of losing the fight?

Maybe just to show Crank and Dispatch that the Vindicators know where they are? To intimidate them, or something? Honestly, it’s working. Redshift has never pulled a move like that. Usually it’s Crank doing it to Redshift. He’s not used to it going the other way.

“Either way, it’s weird,” he mutters as they finish packing up (finally) and get over the divide to the next building.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m gonna agree anyway,” Dispatch replies.

“How did he get out of there?”

“I’m less worried about that and more worried about how he knew where we were, to be honest.”

“Well, Stardust did, last time we were nearby.”

“We don’t know she knew. She might have just been around and saw us. But Redshift knew we were there from across the street and so far below us that he shouldn’t have been able to see us.”

Crank stops before jumping to the next building. They’re already a couple of blocks away, so they don’t quite need to keep up the frantic pace, and he doesn’t want to waste air on talking and moving at the same time. “Is that supposed to be reassuring?”

She stops too. “If I say yes, will it work?”

“No.”

“Good, because it isn’t. But my point was that maybe Stardust told the rest of them to watch out for us around here? I mean, maybe someone else saw us and told Redshift.”

“Still bad.”

“Yeah.”

For Crank, it kind of seems like there’s only one option if they want to be smart about this whole thing. He’s always prided himself on his ability to recognize a dangerous situation approaching and get the fuck out. “Want to lay low for a day or two?”

“Or at least move to a different part of the city.” She shrugs. “I mean, we were going to leave in an hour or so anyway, so we didn’t lose that much time tonight. And I want to try and stick to my schedule.”

“I thought your schedule said to keep watching Szerpinov until we found something interesting?”

“We did. My schedule didn’t say anything about following up on it.” 

“Ha. True.” Dispatch had drawn it up in about five minutes. It’s not really a detailed or well-researched schedule, but it’s something, and it does cover the entire city. Not like they’ve got anything better.

“And if we come back here tomorrow night I won’t have time to do my reading because it’s so far from my place.”

“Okay. A different place tomorrow night, then.”

He starts to move again, but she stops him when she asks, “What’s your plan for when you get home?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to have to explain where you’ve been?”

“I said I was going to a late-night band practice. Worst-case scenario, I’ll say it was going to be a band practice and wound up being me helping you study for two hours.”

At this point, she’s used to being his scapegoat for when they’re out doing stuff for the boss. He gets the same treatment from her, after all. “And you’re going to explain why you didn’t text him that earlier?”

“Because I’m horrible at keeping up with people?”

“That works.”

“Thanks for your opinion.”

“You’re welcome.”

“On that note, you’ve reminded me that I should get back, though.”

“Yeah. Not super nice to abandon your roommate on the first day of living together.”

“You say that like it was one hundred percent my idea to do this.”

“So?”

If he wasn’t so shaken by Redshift’s sign, he would laugh. “Okay. See you.”

“See you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'yikes' -dispatch 2k14 (ig? bc the comic is set in 2014?)
> 
> thank you so much for reading/kudosing/commenting <3 <3
> 
> up next, we have: alex's legs, late night conversations, and uhhhhh toothpaste. see you in two weeks!
> 
> love, birl


	17. Chapter 16: Alex

Alex has never  _ intentionally _ shifted into Ace’s apartment, and now that he needs to try it, he’s half expecting to wind up in his own.

He doesn’t. 

The couch is there, solid frame and squishy cushions, permanently indented in some places from all the people who’ve sat on it. And right now, even though he knows it’s creaky and honestly not super comfortable, it looks like the best couch in the world, because his legs still feel full of pins and needles and basically everything sucks from the waist down.

He takes the necessary two steps forward and flops down on the couch. Ugh.

Tanis had told the Vindicators group chat about her encounter with Crank and Dispatch on top of the Szerpinov Company headquarters, but since she’d confronted them, they weren’t likely to come back to that spot for a while. So the first thing they had done was retrieve their map of good locations to watch the building from and narrowed down the possibilities to try and figure out where Crank and Dispatch would hide out next.

The sign had been Alex’s idea. When Crank did that to him, he had practically felt his soul leave his body from sheer frustration, and so even though the exact angle had been a bit of a gamble, Samirah had reported that Crank and Dispatch packed up and left almost immediately after seeing the sign. (She couldn’t hear what they had said to each other, but it wasn’t cheerful.)

So that’s good. But it doesn’t change the fact that Alex lost a fight with a blue person again (that part was not intentional), not even getting any helpful tidbits from them (not that he ever does), and he feels like his entire body is made of rubber.

Shitty rubber.

He hears the lock on the front door click, but he doesn’t have the energy to get up. He already changed out of his Redshift outfit before shifting into the apartment, and those two combined had almost taken all his energy. (He’ll have to take it back to headquarters soon anyway, and hope Eli’s been too busy to notice it vanished.) So he just lies there. In the unlikely event that it’s someone bad, he can just... inch over to the balcony and fling himself off. He’s taken falls from this high before. It’ll be fine.

“You’re the second person who has laid like that on my couch,” Ace’s voice says. Not someone bad, then. “Is it some kind of trend? Can you even breathe with your face shoved in a pillow?”

“My legs fell asleep,” Alex says without lifting his head up. “I’m hoping they wake up soon.”

“And you need to have your face in a pillow for that to happen?”

“Maybe. You never know.”

“Well, don’t let me stop you from trying new solutions.”

“How was band practice?”

“I wound up just helping Kate study for two hours. So... nonexistent?”

“I don’t think I knew she was in school?”

“Yeah. English major.”

“Cool. I never went to college.”

“Me neither. Why didn’t you?”

Normally, when people ask Alex that question, he goes on the defensive. There’s only so many questions someone can ask about that before they get personal, mean, or both. But Ace’s casual admission that he didn’t go to college, plus the casual tone of his question, makes Alex think that he doesn’t have prying and pushing in mind.

So, he answers.

“Working. Pretty much the second I turned eighteen. Because Danny was still in school, and he’s always been more interested in, like, academics anyway. So we had to save up for college tuition for him. I mean, we still do. Even though he’s got, like, eighty scholarships.”

It’s not strictly true. Alex doesn’t  _ need _ to work full time to support both him and Danny. He never did. They inherited enough money that he could have gone to college if he wanted.

But there was the supercide, and there were his powers that  _ finally _ arrived, and his father’s Redshift jacket, and the possibility of revenge. So he signed on, and frankly, the only thing he’s ever regretted was encouraging Danny to do it too. Even if the revenge is still taking a while to get here.

“How about you?” he finally asks, sitting up a bit so he can make room for Ace on the couch.

Ace sits down. He’s close enough that if Alex shifted by just an inch or two, his hair would brush Ace’s knee. “Dunno. Didn’t really want to, I guess, plus like you said, it’s fucking expensive. I don’t need a degree to play music. And I picked up work in private security. So I do that when I’m not playing, and it works out, as long as nothing big happens.”

Fuck. He works in private security. And Alex told him, back when they first met, that he’s a security guard.

Well. He’s going to have to come up with some elaborate reasons that they’ve never seen each other or worked together before.

Alex mentally files that under his list of ‘things that need to happen so I don’t blow my cover’, which seems to get longer day after day.

“‘As long as nothing big happens’ is basically my daily motto,” he says.

“Same.”

There’s silence for a few moments before Ace says, “Shit, it’s late. I’m gonna go to bed. Are your legs awake again?”

Alex tries flexing a foot. It’s not back to normal, but it’s on the pins-and-needles feeling that vanishes after a few moments. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“Okay. Then goodnight. Hopefully you remember where the coffee stuff is?” When Alex nods (as best as he can given that he’s still facing a couch cushion), Ace says, “Awesome. ‘Night.”

“‘Night.”

He feels the couch cushions move as Ace gets up. The blankets and pillows that he’d used yesterday to make a fairly comfortable, if narrow bed out of the couch are in the corner where he’d left them, although Ace must have folded them, because Alex definitely remembers leaving them in a heap.

Hm. If he folded them, then he probably doesn’t want stuff just lying around randomly. Alex will fold them tomorrow when he gets up.

He hears the bathroom sink running and puts the stuff on the couch in vaguely the same positions that he remembers from last night, and once he’s done adjusting them, the sink isn’t running anymore and Ace’s bedroom door is closed (they’re both morning shower people, which Alex can tell is going to work as long as they don’t have to get up at the same time), so he can go brush his teeth and get ready for bed.

He grabs his toiletries from his bag (“no, it’s fine, I don’t mind carrying them back and forth, it’s your counter space, I don’t need to spread my shit out over everything”), and, going slowly to avoid his legs letting him pitch forward onto the floor, he heads to the bathroom and— 

The mirror above the sink shows him someone who’s tired.

And that’s fair. But it’s just another reminder that Alex  _ really _ needs this whole Redshift-hunting thing to be over. And not just because he doesn’t trust Ace’s couch.

Even though he hasn’t been doing much of the investigation himself, thanks to what feels like all of the Vindicators and then some keeping tabs on him, it’s dragging on everyone. Eli is alternating between a hair-trigger temper (when things don’t go according to procedure) and being too tired to be angry (when there is no procedure). According to Elliot, Madina is hardly sleeping, and he’s not much better.

At least Tanis seemed okay when he saw her. But then, she’s used to crazy schedules and insane amounts of stress.

None of them deserve to have this much extra work, and to make it even worse, he can’t even do his job for more than a couple of minutes at a time. And he’s sleeping on the couch of someone who’s just barely moved from ‘acquaintance’ to ‘friend’, and even if he’s not technically a fugitive, he damn well feels like one.

The sooner this is over, the better. For all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sleepy
> 
> tyvm for reading!!  
> -birl


	18. Chapter 17: Ace

**Ace:** i mean there were no tire marks or blood or anything in the alley

**Ace:** when he vanished

**Ace:** and i didnt hear anything

**Ace:** so

**Ace:** hes probably fine

**Kate:** ok

**Kate:** do u remember like a couple weeks ago when i asked u if u were hooking up w redshift

 

Ace does remember that. Vividly.

 

**Ace:** no

**Ace:** why

**Kate:** bc judging by ur thing for alex u just are into tall guys who could kick ur ass

**Ace:** i dont see what that has to do with my talking about how redshift vanished

**Kate:** my dude

**Kate:** u have been rambling about how he might have gotten out of that alley for two hours on and off

**Kate:** mostly fixating on whether he’s ok or not

**Kate:** that’s not normal for someone u fight on a weekly basis

**Ace:** i mean u can only put someone in a headlock so many times before u feel a Connection

**Kate:** .............

**Kate:** say what u like

**Kate:** this is v suss behavior

**Ace:** why do u always interrogate me about ppl u think i like

**Kate:** awwwww u like gushing

**Ace:** ..

**Ace:** u got me i do

**Ace:** but that doesnt change the fact that im WAY more into alex than redshift bc alex doesnt exist to piss me off

**Kate:** not to ruin ur bubble but thats not why redshift exists either :P

**Ace:** why do u do this to me

**Kate:** bc i luv u and i want u to be realistic

**Ace:** thats not funnnnn

**Kate:** it is for me :) :) :)

**Ace:** shhhhh

 

“So I was thinking,” he says to Alex, who’s sprawled out on the floor reading something on his phone. “Now that you’re staying with me, you basically have no excuse to not come to our gigs.”

Alex snorts. “I feel like I’ve already told you that I’ll still come even if you don’t try to force me. And yet this conversation keeps happening.”

“Reassure me.”

“I feel like I just did.”

“I’m a very insecure person.”

“Is that so?”

“Hm... come to think of it, not really.” Not in any way that matters, anyway. Ace’s insecurity is like a crumpled grocery list you find occasionally buried deep in your pocket and make a mental note to do something about, then you forget about it almost immediately.

Alex scrolls on his phone. “Well, anyway, I was already planning to go.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way.”

“Careful, keep this up and I’ll start thinking you want me around for something other than buying food.”

“How could you think so little of me? I don’t just want you around to buy food. I also want you around to artificially increase our audience numbers.”

“I’m just glad you don’t have merch, otherwise I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to keep any stuff here without it getting replaced.”

Ace shrugs. “A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do. Speaking of, how do we get merch?”

“No.”

“I think that means you just don’t know.”

“I think it means I don’t want to find out.”

“No problem, I’ll ask Madina then.”

Alex makes a noise that could be agreement or a groan of despair, and they sit in silence for a little while, Alex still reading on his phone and Ace seeing how far he has to move his butt from the couch armrest to get his toes to touch the armrest on the other side. (Not that far.)

And then Alex says, “Hey, I was wondering. Why do you have scuff marks, like, all over your floor in this area?”

“Haha. Uh. Long story.”

“Is it an interesting story?”

“Not really,” Ace lies.

“Oh. Then I don’t want to hear it.”

“I’ll spare you.”

“Thanks. In return, I won’t cancel my calendar event to go to your show tonight.”

“See, I  _ do _ influence that.”

 

Even though it’s been a long ass time since Redshift has turned up in Ace’s apartment, he still wonders every time he walks through the door if maybe this time, he’ll find someone dressed all in red, lying on the couch, and bitching about his day.

Maybe he finally fixed whatever was making him turn up there. But whatever the reason, Ace hasn’t even seen Redshift (besides that one time from across the street) in what feels like forever.

He says as much to Kate, when Madina and Elliot are inside setting up and he and Kate have been sent to retrieve some more pieces of the drum kit, and she raises her eyebrows and says, “Do you hear yourself right now?”

And then she says, “Redshift was in your apartment?”

“Uh.” There’s no easy way out of this one. “Yes?”

“Why didn’t you tell me? What the fuck? Does he know who you are?”

“I felt like it would lead to an intense conversation, I don’t know either, and I really doubt it.” Ace picks up a drum. He has no idea where it goes, but putting it all together is Kate’s job. He’s just here to help carry things.

Kate picks up a drum too. “We are talking about this more when we’re not busy.”

Hm. How to get out of this conversation that will undoubtedly mean Kate will drag his poor life choices (rightfully, but still)? “But I have a houseguest. I can’t just abandon him.”

“You’ve done that, like, three nights in a row.”

“Well, maybe I feel bad and I want to stop abandoning him.”

“Well, maybe I don’t believe you.”

“Well, maybe I’m going to stop doing it anyway.”

“Well, you do that.”

“Ha. You didn’t say ‘maybe’, I win.”

“You didn’t say ‘well’  _ or _ ‘maybe’. I double win.”

“What? You can’t double win.”

“I just did.”

“No you didn’t. I won first.”

“But my win supersedes your win because mine is a double win.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yes it does.”

“No it doesn’t.”

“Yes it does.”

“No it doesn’t.”

The door to the bar opens, and Elliot sticks his head out. “What’s taking so long? Do you need help?”

“Kate can’t double win a conversation, can she?” Ace asks.

“Uh.”

“Yes I can,” Kate says. “I just did.”

“I’m going back inside,” Elliot says.

He does, and then Kate says, “For real. You know we’re a team. But Redshift? That’s like, a big fucking development. Come on, I at  _ least _ want to know what interacting with him normally is like.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t call it normal? He always leaves pretty quickly. Once we ate cookies and watched TV for two hours, and then another time he bitched about a press conference he just finished.” 

“Every word coming out of your mouth makes him sound like one of your hookups.”

“Oh, sure. I hook him up with potentially lethal quantities of Girl Scout cookies. But like I said, I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“Huh. Wonder why.”

They have to make two trips to get all of the pieces inside, and as they bring the last two in, Kate says, “I hope he hasn’t figured out who you are.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we are over halfway through the chapters i have written which means i gotta get my ass in gear if i want to have enough done to cover me until after the busy parts of the school year


	19. Chapter 18: Alex

One of the reasons Alex is willing to keep coming to all of these shows (which, by the way, there are so fucking many of them, he does  _ not _ want to know how they all still lead somewhat functional lives), which he will never admit, is that it’s just fun to watch Ace perform.

The music is good, and of course he wants to support his friends, but the other forty percent or so of the reason he keeps doing this is because it’s fun to see all of them in their element. Particularly Ace, who Alex is pretty sure was born to be onstage. 

But he’s never going to admit that because then Ace will never stop calling him ‘groupie’ and he’ll have to, like, acknowledge it.

His phone buzzes once, which means it’s a work text. (His phone usually buzzes twice, but somehow someone at Mission Control had managed to set it up so anything from Eli or the Vindicators’ work chat— entirely different from the Vindicators’ friend chat, which is the most unprofessional thing Alex has ever taken part in— will only buzz once, and then Alex knows not to, for instance, read the text aloud. Not that he’s ever done that, but still.)

 

**Eli:** we need you to bring your roommate in tomorrow

**Eli:** but don’t tell him why

**Eli:** it looks like this will be going on for a while so he needs some information, natia and i have compiled enough facts to make you make sense as a person (which was hard) without revealing your identity

**Eli:** but he should at least know why you’re staying with him for so long

**Alex:** yeah i guess thats more fair to him

**Eli:** also makes sure he doesn’t do anything that will put you in danger

**Eli:** so bring him in tomorrow

**Eli:** visitors’ entrance though

**Eli:** and DO NOT TELL HIM ANYTHING

**Eli:** we’ll tell you what we told him, so you know who he thinks you are

**Eli:** and while he’s there, you can go run tests with madina, or help her stick pins in the wall, I don’t care

**Alex:** hard pass on the tests but i will gladly stick pins in the wall

**Eli:** good

**Eli:** and go to bed, it’s late and the last thing you need is a fucked up sleep schedule

 

Alex glances at the time. It’s eleven forty-five, and they’ve still got an afterparty after this. 

 

**Alex:** ughhhhhhh

**Alex:** will do

 

(That’s a blatant lie. But at least Eli won’t get mad at him more than necessary.)

 

**Alex:** when do u want me to bring him

**Eli:** 10:30

**Alex:** am or pm?

**Eli:** what did I literally just say about sleep schedules

**Eli:** am

**Alex:** ok ttyl bye

**Eli:** go to sleep

 

It takes a bit of thinking for Alex to figure out how he can persuade Ace to come with him to work the next day without immediately revealing that he works for the Vindicators.

In the end, he goes for the ‘confused civilian’ route, because that’s probably the best way for him to come out of this without getting asked any awkward questions.

“Uh, Ace?” he says, walking into the kitchen. 

“Yeah?” Ace isn’t really paying attention— he’s watching the microwave very carefully. Alex is guessing it’s hot chocolate, judging by the smell.

“So I just got this weird call—”

Ace turns around faster than Alex had expected. “From who?”

“The Vindicators?”

His brow furrows. “Why?”

Which is a fair question. As far as Ace knows, there’s literally no reason for the Vindicators to even know who Alex is, much less want to call him.

Here comes the truthful part. “They said to come to their headquarters tomorrow. At ten-thirty AM,” he adds, although Ace probably doesn’t care much about the exact timing. “Both of us.”

The microwave dings, which distracts Ace from the conversation long enough to take out a mug. It doesn’t look like hot chocolate, though.

“What is that?”

“Mug cake.” Ace grabs two spoons. “I wasn’t sure if you would want any, and I didn’t have enough cocoa for two mugs, so we’re splitting this one.”

Alex accepts the spoon, and as soon as he does, Ace continues, “Why do they want us to go to their headquarters?”

And now back to the lying part. “Beats me.”

Ace takes a spoonful of the mug cake and eats it while he thinks about that. “I mean, I’m not doing anything, so there’s not really a reason  _ not _ to go? Still weird, though.”

Alex just shrugs at him and takes some cake.

Success.

 

The next morning, Tanis corners Alex almost immediately after he drops Ace off in the conference room with Eli and Natia. Alex only has time to think ‘what is happening’ before she says, “Does anyone know about your relationship besides me and him?”

And Alex says “no”, because he’s not dumb (if he says yes, she’ll try to figure out who else knows) and it’s almost the truth, anyway.

“Eli just told me that according to Madina, you’ve only known your roommate for a month or so.” 

That’s not good. The only way Eli would know that would be if he’s already done a background check on Ace— which Alex expected, but that means that Tanis knows about the background check and is going to call his bluff about them actually dating, and then he’ll have to explain why he lied to her, and then— 

Tanis is still talking. “And if Madina didn’t even know you already knew each other— I guess what I’m getting at is, what’s the point? Is he that closeted?”

Alex knows he’s running out of lies, so he says, “Well, not with his friends.”

“Then you might want to consider telling someone. I’m sure it’ll make life a lot easier for both of you. And I don’t count, I’m only friends with one of you. It’s got to be hard on him too.”

“Yeah,” Alex says, because what else do you say to that?

“Think about it,” she says. “And talk to him about it, too.”

Tanis leaves.

_ Well, fuck. _

Because here’s the thing. If Tanis was just with Eli during a background check on Ace, then she knows the identities of every close friend they share— namely, Madina and more recently, Elliot, and then Kate.

So Elliot can’t keep a secret to save his life, and Madina would be way too responsible about the whole thing (since, to be fair, he is being a dumbass and now he can’t get himself out of it), and that leaves Kate except he doesn’t know Kate that well and wait a fuck, why is he even considering this? They’re not dating. Duh.

A little voice at the back of his head says,  _ Then why are you going along with Tanis on this? _ , to which he firmly tells his brain to shut up, which earns him a weird look from Kim, who’s walking by—  _ Kim. _

“Kim, I got myself into a stupid ass situation, and I don’t know what to do.”

“Get yourself out of it,” Kim suggests.

“I’m trying.”  _ Are you? _ the little voice says. Alex gracefully ignores it.

“And you can’t?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re underestimating how stupid the situation is.”

They study him for a moment and say, “This requires Samira and some snacks. I cannot wait to hear how much you fucked up.”

“It’s a hell of a story. Where’s Samira?”

“Training, I think.”

 

Once they’ve gotten Samira from the super gym and Kim has located both microwave popcorn and a microwave, Alex (after checking that nobody is in the hallway and could therefore be listening in) tells both of them everything.

By the time he’s done, the popcorn still isn’t out of the microwave yet, but that isn’t for lack of detail— it’s just not a very long story.

“So? Any ideas?”

Samira blinks a few times before saying, “Are you sure you actually, genuinely did this? Like, with your brain and everything?”

“Unfortunately.”

“It’s just that I literally see no reason why you did.”

Alex has to shrug. “We’re equally lost. I just kind of opened my mouth and words came out without me thinking about them.”

“According to Eli, that’s not that unusual for you,” Kim points out as the microwave dings.

“Okay, but that’s ignoring the whole reason I started this conversation, which is that I have no idea how to get myself out of this without getting a lot of questions from Tanis, or Ace, or... like everyone.”

“I think you should confess your love publicly and hope it works out,” Samira says with a reasonably straight face.

“That would raise more questions, since he told Tanis that Ace was really closeted,” Kim says.

“Oh. Then you should... tell Madina you’re dating Ace.”

“That would be hilarious. Tell Elliot too. At the same time.”

“You know he used to date Ace, right?”

“Yeah, he told me. In detail.” Kim pops some popcorn into their mouth. “That’s why I’m suggesting it.”

“I feel like neither of you are actually trying to help.”

“Okay, fine,” Samira says. “You can tell Tanis that you told me. Because you did. And then everything will be fine, until the truth comes out and everything gets weird.”

“Good enough for now. I’ll deal with everything getting weird when it actually does.”

Kim says, “You mean weirder.”

Someone knocks on the door, and Eli’s voice says, “Alex, come get your boy, we’re done talking to him.”

“That’s my cue. Thanks for the zero help, Kim, and the some help, Samira.”

“I’m not being helpful because I’m pretty sure you know what you have to do already if you don’t want this blowing up in your face,” Kim says.

“Yeah, I need to tell Tanis we broke up but rent is cheaper with a roommate and we’re still friends so we’re going to keep living together.”

“That is... definitely not what I meant, but okay, do that.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“Tell Tanis the truth and immediately go live in secure housing for three years. See you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> later-in-the-day update than usual bc today i was teching a show for 9 hours yikesssssss


	20. Chapter 19: Ace

When they get to Vindicators headquarters, the only thing that keeps Ace moving steadily is knowing that if he doesn’t, Alex will have questions. There’s an overwhelming sense of ‘Crank is about to get eviscerated’ that oozes from the tile on the floors and the occasional potted plants. They do pass a person with electric blue hair, though, so that part is cool.

In a weird way, it feels like he’s going to the principal’s office.

And he doesn’t miss the way people watch them. Both him and Alex. He can’t tell what they’re thinking, but everybody notices them, and it looks like everyone has an opinion about it, since he can see them edging closer to each other like they’re going to start talking the second he and Alex get out of earshot. And since Ace doesn’t even know why he needs to be here, and he’s kind of actively been working against these people, that is not comforting at all.

Alex either isn’t noticing or doesn’t care. His face is blank, and he doesn’t slow whenever they reach a corner, choosing hallways without hesitating.

They walk for a while before Alex brings him to a door (which looks like every other door in this hallway), knocks, and leaves before the door even opens. 

The man who opens it is dark-haired and dressed more professionally than anyone else Ace has seen here (which, by the way, it’s still surreal that he’s actually at the Vindicators’ headquarters), and when he sees who’s at the door, he opens the door wider so that Ace can walk through.

Ace does, but he almost stops in his tracks when he sees the other person in the room, already seated at the conference table that has way more chairs than there are people in here.

He knows who Galaxy is, he’s not stupid, so he knows the battle to keep his identity secret is over, no matter who the guy in the button-down and tie is or why he’s here.

So instead of pulling some ‘confused civilian’ bullshit, he cuts to the chase and says, “How secure is this room?”

The man says, “Secure enough that if this goes well, you get to walk out of here without anyone taking a second look at you.” 

He gestures at a chair, and as Ace sits (he doesn’t know why he was expecting it to be anything other than a completely normal chair), he says, “Damn. I always go for the second look. That’s why I got the mohawk.”

“Is it.” He doesn’t look impressed.

“What do you want?”

The guy sits down. “I want to know what you and Dispatch know about Redshift’s identity.”

“Oh.” 

That means the Vindicators already knew he was Crank before he stepped in the room, which means they have some reason they didn’t immediately have him arrested, which means they want something from him, which means this is going to be a very stressful conversation and Ace is pretty sure the only way he’s going to get out of it alive and well is by faking nonchalance and hoping that Galaxy continues to not say anything. 

“Did you really need to get Alex to bring me in here, then? I would’ve just told you if you talked to me when I was Crank.” And that’s true, since he would have been way too intimidated to do anything else, even without Galaxy hanging around reading his mind. But something still isn’t right about this. “Why did Alex have to come, anyway?” And how did Alex know exactly where to go? He never asked anyone for directions or checked his phone, just took Ace directly to the right door, and there are at least dozens of doors in this place.

_ Something is fucky. _

Galaxy shifts in her chair, but she doesn’t say anything, and her facial expression doesn’t change.

“We knew you would go with him,” the man says smoothly. Which means he knows a lot more about Ace than Ace would like him to know. But then again, that was obvious from when he mentioned Dispatch. “Fortunately for you, he has no idea why you’re here.”

That doesn’t really mesh with Alex knowing these hallways like the back of his hand, and vanishing before he even confirmed that Ace was in the right place, but Ace doesn’t say that out loud. This guy has circles under his eyes dark enough that Ace is willing to believe he’s ready to kill a man. It’s probably not a good idea to point out too many inconsistencies. 

But he can’t just let that go, either. “Alex doesn’t just go along with shit for no reason.”

“That’s nice.” Did he want to avoid antagonizing this guy earlier? The feeling is even stronger now. He’s never thought of himself as easy to scare, and he’s not scared, but there has to be a reason this person is talking to him, and if he’s leading the conversation instead of Galaxy, he must have some serious pull with the Vindicators. All in all, he’s probably bad news for Ace. “Now, back to Redshift. Start talking.”

So Ace does. He tells them everything, because Galaxy is right there, so it’s not like he can lie. And the guy doesn’t look familiar at all, but he could still have some power that will either make it very hard for Ace to lie, or make it very painful for him.

So, he tells the truth. And Galaxy can probably tell that he’s leaving a few things out— it wouldn’t be fair for him to reveal Dispatch’s identity, even if they already know. But she doesn’t comment, and he keeps talking, and she still doesn’t comment.

When he’s done, she seems to know, because she says, “Thank you. Alex will be here shortly, and then you can go.”

“I want to make something clear,” the man says. “Don’t assume that we’re letting you go just because we’re letting you leave. We’re keeping an eye on you. If something happens that concerns us, you will be coming back here, and something different will be happening.”

“Well, that just makes me super excited.”

The man leaves without responding, but Galaxy stays, so Ace can’t just book it.

“So I can just... walk out of here?” he asks her.

“Yes, although we will of course be back in touch if we feel we need any more of your assistance.”

“You call that assistance?”

She’s not fazed. “We found it very helpful.”

“Why do you even need to know that from me anyway? Unless— am I close? Are you worried I’ll actually find out?”

Galaxy looks like she’s going to say something, but the door opens and Alex walks in.

“Hi,” he says. He looks happy. Maybe he got paid to bring Ace in. “How’d it go?”

“I thought you didn’t know why I was here?”

Alex blinks and glances at Galaxy before looking back at Ace. “So? Obviously something happened. So how did it go?”

“Splendidly. Let’s go home now.”

“Yeah.” He glances around the room. “I’ve got to call my boss about something anyway.”

Alex shoots a look at Galaxy as they walk out, but Ace doesn’t catch enough of it to figure out what that emotion is.

They still get the looks as they walk out, and Alex still navigates easily. At one point, someone veers closer like they want to say something to Alex, but then they veer away without starting a conversation. Ace doesn’t say anything while they’re still in the building, but once they get outside, he says, “You know that place really well.”

“My dad used to work there.”

“Oh.” Ace doesn’t know anything about Alex’s dad, but he’s never heard anything about him from either Alex or Danny, so that’s probably why Alex’s face is still blank, like he’s got an invisible mask on. Definitely not a good thing to ask for more details about.

They walk home in silence after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :0
> 
> love y'all  
> -birl


	21. Chapter 20: Alex

Something weird definitely happened in that conversation with Ace, Eli, and Natia. Because Alex was expecting Ace to look shaken, but not  _ that _ much, and he definitely wasn’t expecting Ace to withdraw into himself so much.

So something must have gone wrong, and he can’t prod Ace too much about it yet, since Eli still hasn’t sent over the notes about what they told him, so he needs to talk to Eli instead, and that’s not something Alex is looking forward to doing. But he’s still going to do it.

When they get home, Alex shepherds Ace into some other room as quickly as possible, then steps onto the balcony, closes the door behind him, dials Eli’s number, and waits for him to pick up.

“What do you want, Alex?”

“What the fuck just happened?”

He can hear Eli’s heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “I had to lie to you. I’m sorry. But I needed to get proof that your new roommate is actually Crank—” 

_ What. _

“Okay, the  _ fuck? _ I thought— didn’t you say—”

Eli gracefully ignores Alex’s sputtering and keeps talking. “Fortunately, he has no idea you’re Redshift, so you can stay there for now, we don’t think you’re in any danger. Please don’t fuck that up by, oh, I don’t know,  _ telling him, _ like you did with Elliot. Otherwise, it’s secure housing for you. Get it?”

“There’s a lot to unpack there,” Alex says faintly. 

“Dude, you good?” Ace says from inside.

“Yeah,” he says, and then puts his attention back on Eli. “I repeat— what the fuck?”

“Okay, here are the facts, in order.”  _ Thank God.  _ “I was doing a background check on Ace when I noticed his patterns of disappearing. I ran them through the super database, because I always do when stuff like that pops up, and it matched up perfectly with Crank and Dispatch’s appearances— well, not perfectly, but ninety-three percent is way higher than any other matches we’ve had before.” 

Given that the highest match they’d had before was a seventy-six, Alex can understand that. 

“And I took a wild fucking guess that he was Crank, and not Dispatch. Given the mohawk, gender, and generally obnoxious habit of referring to himself as ‘daddy’.”

Well, he really can’t argue with that.

“But I wanted proof, so I had you bring him in so I could get concrete proof of that— Natia helped, that’s why she was there, to make sure he was telling the truth— and also figure out whether he knew who you were. And he doesn’t, so you’re fine. For now.”

“You are giving me whiplash with your mixed signals about my safety,” Alex says, because that’s easier than talking about the whole Ace-the-neighbor-I’m-living-with-is-the-same-guy-I’ve-been-fighting-for-forever thing.

“Well, think about it. Crank, as a criminal, is probably either working with these people or they’ve confirmed already that he’s not Redshift. Staying with him could even give you a bit of a smokescreen. Of course we can’t risk him finding out, but you seem to have been friends for a while without him putting two and two together, so... I’m trusting you to make sure he doesn’t.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re trusting me? Who are you and what have you done with Eli?”

“I have too much shit to do to babysit you all the time, especially now,” Eli says. “You’re old enough. You should know how to keep a secret identity secret, or so help me, you do not deserve that mask.”

There’s a  _ click _ as he hangs up.

“That was fun,” Alex mutters, mostly to himself, but partly to the wind that’s blowing.

“Who was that?” Ace says, stepping out onto the balcony next to him.

At this point, lies are easy to come by. Usually Alex texts with people, because it means he doesn’t have to make up a conversation afterwards, but if he needs to, he can do it. “Oh, my boss. He moved the deadline up for a project without telling me. So that’s gonna be super fun to deal with.”

“No offense, but he sounds like a nightmare.”

“Only if you catch him on a bad day. The benefits are great, though. I haven’t paid a medical bill since I started.”

“Damn. Let me know if they start hiring.”

_ He’s Crank, he’s Crank, he’s Crank. _

“Sure,” Alex finds himself saying. Because he can say it and not have it mean anything. He’ll just pretend his work never starts hiring, and forget about it, and never mention it ever again, and Ace will probably forget, anyway.

“I’ll probably be looking for something new soon, anyway,” Ace says. “I told you I was in private security, right?” When Alex nods, he says, “Yeah. I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s so not for me, you know? If I can find a better thing, I’m taking it.”

Honestly, that makes Alex want to punch the railing, because if he had only said that before he signed up to be Crank, it would be so easy to make him a Vindicator. He’s good in a fight, he has great control over his powers, but he’s also a criminal.

“Anyway, that call didn’t sound fun, so I got the chips out if you want any. I’m definitely having some, it’s been a weird day.”

“Yeah, I want some. I’ll be inside in a minute.”

“‘Kay.” 

Ace goes back inside, and Alex watches him out of his peripheral vision, and then texts Eli again.

 

**Alex:** he just told me he’s in private security but he’s thinking about looking for a new job

**Alex:** did you have anything to do with that

**Eli:** if he’s thinking about that, he got there on his own

**Eli:** keep me updated though, just in case by ‘new job’ he means ‘not being crank’

**Eli:** which is a great idea for us, unless he decides to do something else more nefarious

**Alex:** did you actually just use the word nefarious

**Eli:** find me a better synonym and i’ll use that instead

 

Alex goes inside instead of replying.

Ace is already on the couch, with a bag of chips on the table, and he looks about three minutes away from finishing the bag by himself.

Obviously, Alex can’t let that happen, so he sits down next to Ace and says, “Weird day?”

“Oh my god, ridiculous. What were you doing while I was talking to Galaxy and a random guy?”

“Eating popcorn,” Alex says truthfully.

Ace grabs a whole handful of chips at that. “Unfair.”

“Well, what were you doing, then?”

“They wanted to know what I knew about Redshift. Which is weird, because what I know is pretty much what everyone  _ else _ knows.”  _ Except you’re Crank, so you know a whole lot more than that. _ “Tall, fast, wears red, punches people, and he’s probably too sarcastic to function well in real life.”

Well, that’s... more accurate than Alex would like it to be.

“Why did they want to know?”

Ace shrugs, focusing on the chips in his hand. Which, okay, even if Alex  _ didn’t _ already know that Eli knows Ace is Crank and that he’s currently rooming with Redshift, he would find that suspicious. Ace makes eye contact like he’s trying to win a contest.

“Well, that’s definitely weird,” Alex says. “Can I have some chips, or are you just going to taunt me with them?”

“You would be able to take them if you weren’t sitting literally as far away as possible while still being on the same couch,” Ace says, and he does not pass the chips.

“It’s not a big couch.” It’s barely more than a loveseat, actually. Alex is sitting at the other end, but that barely means anything. He’s only six or so inches away from Ace.

“And you have long arms, and I want chips.”

Just to prove the point, Alex stretches his arm out as far as he can, to see if he can get the chips without moving. And if he fully engages his core muscles so he can lean over without falling literally into Ace’s lap, nobody needs to know. But he gets the chips.

The corner of Ace’s mouth quirks up. “What, are you afraid if you touch me you’ll suddenly find me irresistible?” Alex crunches his chips in response, and Ace says, “I do my best to make sure I’m irresistible no matter what, so no worries there.”

“I’m pretty sure if I was irresistibly attracted to you, you would know by now,” Alex says. 

Ace holds the bag of chips further away from him. “Rude, did I ask?”

“Kind of?”

“We differ on that.”

There’s no way around it. He’s either going to have to move his butt or sprawl across Ace to get to the chips, and honestly, the latter sounds a lot better, because then he doesn’t have to work his core muscles anymore and maybe it’ll surprise Ace enough that he can snag the bag of chips for himself.

He lets himself fall and discovers that Ace’s arms aren’t long enough to hold the chips out of his reach anymore. “I call that a win.”

“Ugh, fine, I guess we can share the chips.”

“Definitely a win.”

Laying half on Ace’s lap and half on the couch is surprisingly comfortable, and this way he has unlimited chip access, so Alex is going to stay here for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'fuck'- alex 2k14
> 
> thanks for reading :) it's thanksgiving break now so hopefully i'll get a few more chapters queued up! not that we're in any danger of running out for a few months, but still
> 
> -birl


	22. Chapter 21: Ace

Ace’s willpower is weakened enough by the fact that Alex is literally lying in his lap that he eventually just gives him the bag of chips. And then he stealthily gets his phone out and texts Kate a picture of the situation.

 

**Ace:** help

**Kate:** why do u need help

**Kate:** seems like ur in a fine situation to me

**Ace:** i am thats the problem

**Ace:** next time i see u i need u to look me in the eye and tell me to fucking chill

**Ace:** im sweating kate

**Ace:** its gross

**Kate:** is it like nervous sweating or like warm sweating

**Ace:** could you have phrased that better than ‘warm sweating’

**Kate:** definitely not

**Kate:** that phrase is perfect

**Ace:** k

**Ace:** but like im still confused and intimidated by what u mean by ‘warm sweating’

**Kate:** sweating..... bc u are warm........ bc there is a person lying on top of you.........

**Kate:** genuinely concerned that u didn’t know what i meant

**Ace:** well im genuinely concerned by the phrase ‘warm sweating’

 

“Question,” he says out loud. “When you hear the phrase ‘warm sweating’, what do you think of?”

“Gross,” Alex says immediately.

“ _ Thank _ you.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Kate said it and now I’m judging her.”

“Judge away. I’m just going to finish the chips while you do that.”

“As long as you buy more, I really don’t care what you do to the chips.”

 

**Ace:** ok i have a request

**Kate:** warm sweating?

**Ace:** stahp

**Kate:** is that ur request bc no :p

**Ace:** not rlly i actually had a different one in mind

**Kate:** what

**Ace:** just literally come over to my apartment and look me in the eye and tell me to chill like forget about this ‘next time u see me’ nonsense just do it now

**Kate:** question

**Kate:** why do u need to chill

**Ace:** KATE IM SWEATING

**Kate:** oh right

**Kate:** warm sweating

**Ace:** fucking

**Ace:** im never gonna give u relationship updates ever again if this is what happens

**Kate:** oho so its a relationship now is it

**Ace:** lmao i wish

**Ace:** but tbh im feeling kinda done with fwb for now so its that or being single

**Kate:** what wld it take for u to make a move

**Ace:** 110% certainty that i wld not be rejected

**Ace:** bc yknow it would be awkward otherwise since hes staying w me

**Kate:** true

**Kate:** well when u get ur boy off of u lmk bc i want to check something out today

**Kate:** u craving some baked goods?

**Ace:** sure

 

“Get up, Kate needs me.”

“Getting up takes effort.”

Ace stands up without waiting for Alex to get off of him. “Sure.”

“Cold.”

“Bye.” And with that, he leaves before he can think about how he literally just dumped Alex on the floor. Because Ace is prone to overthinking stuff like that, and if Kate wants to check out the baking company again, it’s not really a great time to start overthinking.

 

Turns out, that’s exactly what she wants to do.

“Pretty much everyone leaves by like, eight,” Dispatch says. “So we’ll go in then. But we need to figure out how to get in.”

Crank squints at the roof of the building. They’re farther away than they were last time, since they’ve had too many close calls with Vindicators. “Isn’t there a maintenance door on the roof?” Last he checked, there was, but maybe it’s broken, or maybe he was wrong.

“Locks by six. So we could go in before then, but we would need to figure out how to spend two hours in there without getting caught.”

“What’s even in there? It’s an office building, right? So there must be conference rooms. We can find one they’re not using. Unless someone comes in... would anyone have meetings after six, though?”

“Only with international clients.”

“And they’re only a chain in the continental US and Canada. So we should be fine, because most people go home at like, five or six. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called a nine-to-five.”

“Okay.” Dispatch ticks the steps off on her fingers. “So we go in at five fifty-nine, through the roof, find an empty conference room, and hang out there until eight, then we give it a little longer so the maintenance people get out of the way— I forgot to mention they start on the top floor and work their way down— and then we can do whatever we want.”

“So what do we do until then?”

“I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to get out of there so fast, so I have no idea.”

For a moment, Crank wonders about telling her everything about that morning. But would the Vindicators consider that a problem? Because his number one priority right now is making sure they don’t think he’s a problem, because that would mean they would haul him back in, probably by making Alex do it, and then he would either have to sit through another interrogation or they would just give up on the whole asking questions part and arrest him, so either way, bad plan.

“When did you figure all of this out anyway?” he asks instead.

“This morning. I thought about getting you to come with me, but then I figured that if you didn’t have anything to do you would have been blowing my phone up talking about how bored you were, and you weren’t, so I just did it myself.”

“I could have—” Except no, he couldn’t, because he was busy getting interrogated by the Vindicators. “Never mind. But, like, it’s not an emergency, is it? I could have helped. Just not this morning.”

“It isn’t an emergency,” she agrees slowly. “But I don’t want to miss our chance.”

“Makes sense.”

“What were you doing this morning, anyway?” she asks without taking her gaze off of Szerpinov Co. like if she stares at it for long enough, it’ll just open up.

“Oh, uh... random stuff.”

Dispatch doesn’t call him out for that, but if this is how his first few hours as Crank after the interrogation are going, he feels in his bones that everything’s going to go to shit really fast unless he does something.

“I’m gonna see if I can figure anything else out about the layout,” he says. “Let me know if someone’s about to jump me.”

“‘Kay.”

Hopping buildings is the easiest way to get around to somewhere that Dispatch can’t see him, and it has the double advantage of also making it easier for him to actually look at the building and see what he can figure out. So he crosses from rooftop to rooftop until he’s sure she can’t hear him, and then crosses a couple more for good measure, and then takes out his phone.

 

**Ace:** yo u said the vindicators called u right? could u tell them to call me?

**creepy neighbor:** uh sure?

**creepy neighbor:** why?

**Ace:** theres some stuff to clear up

**creepy neighbor:** the one who called me was the same one who talked to you today so ill tell him

**Ace:** k ty

 

He can see a room with a lot of windows, but they’re blacked out. It’s probably a conference room of some kind, so maybe they can hide out in there while they’re killing time. Unless the reason it has blacked out windows is because there’s something shady going on in there— so yeah, they definitely want to check it out. And it’s even on the top floor.

But he can’t go back and tell Dispatch about it until he’s had a chance to talk to the scary guy, so he just makes a mental note of it and waits.

He doesn’t have to wait for long.

The phone rings, and when Crank answers the call, the first thing is, “I’m surprised you didn’t block your number.”

“By all means, feel free to try calling this one again, but you’ll be wasting your time,” the man says on the other end. “What do you want?”

“Well, you’re pleasant. But I thought I should let you know that Dispatch already has questions about where I was this morning. So if you plan to make this a recurring thing, you’re either going to have to give me an alibi or I’ll tell her everything.”

“If you tell her everything, it  _ will _ be a recurring thing, you can trust me on that.”

“That doesn’t sound like a solution to me.”

“Funnily enough, it does to me. For instance, you  _ could _ just let it go, not tell her anything, and stay out of our way, and you’ll never have to make an excuse for it again. Consider it.”

There’s a  _ click _ as he hangs up, and Crank sighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oho shits gonna go down
> 
> kate is doing all this work and meanwhile ace is sitting around being distracted by boy drama (and, ok, basically being kidnapped, but mostly boy drama)
> 
> also, i'm now done with chapter 32, which means i'm nearly covered for all the way up until summer 2019! that means the more chapters i write, the more likely it is that i'll be able to start updating once a week :) my wip is over 55k now and shows no signs of winding down (haha winding down windUP) so be prepared for a long ass ride. im v v excited for yall to get to see this new plot line, ive been working on it since like september LOL
> 
> also: when, if ever, will ace change alex's contact name to something other than 'creepy neighbor'? only time will tell
> 
> thanks for reading, kudosing, and commenting!  
> love, birl

**Author's Note:**

> my sz blog is elijahrosefanclub!!! talk to me there!!!!!!!


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